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Tag: Chicago
Ex-Fenwick student in mob book
The indispensable Newsalert urges us to:
Check out page 123 of Frank Calabrese Jr.’s new book on the Chicago Mob [where] AFL-CIO leader and Chicago Mob associate Ed Hanley gets a mention.
Yes. Resurrection or Thomas Aquinas, ’45, not sure which; Fenwick ’49, except he lasted only a year, if that.
Stood in the boys’ room at a St. Catherine or St. Edmund dance, coolly showing how to smoke a cigarette, and I mean without half trying. Had a picture of a lovely St. Catherine’s girl we knew, he said; it was a blond Valkyrie maiden, unclothed, sitting at a picnic site, arms overhead, hands clasped behind her head. (His brother had taken it while a G.I. in Germany.)
Another report: he saved a St. Catherine of Siena and Fenwick alum (or student) from a drubbing by bully boys on one occasion, stopping them with a word. Years later, the wife was still grateful.
That was kid stuff. Much later he pretty much hosted or at least prominently attended a birthday party for a Fenwick classmate, maybe at the Como Inn, at which an equally lovely, though only partially unclothed, young woman rose from a cake. Ed’s surprise. I was not there, but got details from some who were. A classmate recalled driving home from the event, that is, he remembers arriving in Melrose Park. Luckily.
Those mood-shifting blues
Are there newspaper-reading moments when you’d like to see respect for good-old-fashioned mood?
Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel said Friday hes looking for a partner in reform, and he is heartened if Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th) is prepared to forge that alliance.
No, Fran Spielman, or whoever to whom you call in your stories, he’s looking for a partner and would be heartened if etc. etc. There is more to life than the indicative, is there not?
And I’m saying this even if you, and to some extent I, have a mayor who also is stranger to mood changes:
Im looking for a partner in reform. If hes ready to do that, Im heartened because we must reform. This is the era of reform, Emanuel said.
Your Honor, attention please: if he’s ready (a big if, very big if), you would be heartened etc. etc. It’s in doubt, Your Honor. In a lot of doubt, in fact. Can you respect that (publicly)?
Continuing:
I want to turn the page and usher in that era, and Im pleased that the alderman is gonna be part of that [you don’t know
that, but say it anyhow] because City Council, the mayor, people I appoint must participate [now you’re talking: this is indicative with a dose
of imperative] in the reform and changes necessary to put the city, its economy, its school system and its public safety on a different course.
And if they do not, then what, Your Honor? Wait. Do not tell us. We want to see this thing work out in its own time. There’s this optative mood in Latin, for hoping and wishing. We could try that.
Ald. Burke might cooperate:
Given the crises that Chicago is confronting right now, we dont have the luxury of engaging in those kinds of divisive matters. Weve got to all pull together. We owe it to the people of Chicago” [he says].
Uh-oh. Those kinds of matters, eh? How many kinds would that be, Alderman, and which ones have priority? Listen, there’s one kind of matter that you are talking about, and it’s white-knuckles economic-catastrophe, let’s-not-fall-in-the-lake matter.
Yes, I like that optative for now. It’s the best I can manage.
Eddie Burke, where you gonna live?
I don’t believe it. He loses the finance committee chair?
Edward Burke: Daley and Burke were never close friends, but throughout Daleys 22 years in office, the dean of the council maintained great clout and amassed vast wealth with his city-related side work due to a non-aggression pact with the mayor. With Daley retiring, Burke scoffed that Emanuel lacked the right approach to dealing with aldermen and he endorsed Chico. Emanuel responded by threatening to strip Burke of his powerful Finance Committee chairmans job.
I’d put such a change up there with Jane Byrne beating Bilandic in ’79. “You did it, Chicago!” Royko rejoiced, celebrating the machine loss. Snow did it, actually.
Losing black residents
This Chicago Census Roundup: Why Is Chicago Shrinking? probably does justice to the housing-stock issue but like other analyses treats the black-loss matter in terms solely of migration. But what about the black abortion rate?
Blacks . . . have much higher rates of abortions than whites or other minority groups. In 2000, while blacks made up 17 percent of live births, they made up more than twice that share of abortions (36 percent). . . . . The comparison with whites and other minorities is striking. Whites made up 78 percent of live births, but only 57 percent of abortions. Non-black minorities had 7 percent of live births and 5 percent of abortions.
In other words, there are fewer blacks in general, especially in big cities:
. . . black flight isn’t solely a Chicago phenomenon. New York’s black population declined as well, while the black populations of major Southern metropolises grew.
Unreasonable?
Roeser for Rahm
I find this of more than passing interest. It’s Tom Roeser on Chicago mayor. He dismisses Moseley Braun, naturally, for her “masterly ineptitude for administration.” She would do to Chicago in one term what Coleman Young did to Detroit in 20 years. (Make it 19.)
Roeser continues:
The only two I have any faith in are Rahm Emanuel and Gery Chico…but Chico is malleable and can easily be rolled by the Gray Wolves of the Council.
This be Chicago-dom. The great Scylla and Charybdis of city politics: rapacious aldermen vs. powerful mayor running weak-mayor governmental form. Roeser buys the second and says (at this point) he prefers Emanuel:
Rahm is so duplicitous and mean I think he’ll perceive it’s in his own interest not to let Chicago go the way of Detroit.
Point being, you don’t have to like the guy, you just have to respect his ability to save the city.
Gadfly
This William Kelly gets in people’s faces, does he not? In this case those of mayoral candidate Emanuel and official newsman Levine. Very interesting.
Grim statistics
SNAP has studied the matter:
—256 of the Chicago archdiocese’s roughly 400 parishes have, at one time, had an accused pedophile priest working there,
– 30 parishes had two or more alleged predator priests assigned to them at one time, and
– a disproportionate percentage of parishes in lower income neighborhoods had accused priests working at hem.
The leaders:
Two parishes have had five accused priests [each] (St. Leonard in Berwyn and St. Aloysius in Chicago). Six have had four accused priests [each] (Holy Innocents in Chicago, St. Christina in Chicago, St. Eulalia in Maywood, St. John Vianney in Northlake, St. Thomas of Villanova in Palatine, and Resurrection Life Center in Chicago).
Maybe a new group? Priests who Stood by Unknowing or Uncertain (PSUU)? In silence, that is. Many of them feeling not so good at this point, I bet.
Rahm runs, meets, greets
From Pat Hickey about Emanuel streetwalking in Chi-town:
From what I can gather, Rahm’s pressing of flesh -as it were – is being treated by us helots with all of the joy and delight that a hot tub owner might elicit had Jimmy The Leper done a cannon ball into the foaming brine!
Jimmy the Leper, keep out of my hot tub!
Happy warriors
#2 Son reports on last Sunday’s Chicago Half Marathon, which he and others ran to raise moolah for Heshima Kenya, which speaks for itself as
the first and only organization in Kenya devoted to identifying, protecting and empowering unaccompanied refugee children and youth living in Nairobi
“after 19 years of regional refugee crisis.”
Heshima K can use your moolah, easily donated here.
The report:
Hello Team Heshima supporters!
On Saturday I spent the entire day meditating on the big race. I got a haircut, stretched my muscles, and then walked it out. I thought, I got a pretty good chance of winning this thing. Anne’s folks generously invited the runners over for a large pasta dinner on Saturday night, where I ate my fill. Then I bought a hat to shield my bald head from the sun, which I then forgot when the taxi came at 5:45 the next morning. Luckily my sister Mar had brought an extra. What a gal!
Anne and Mar and I took the taxi to Jackson Park where we met the rest of the red jerseys. Go team! We were few, but mighty. We were a drop in a bucket of 20,000 runners, and it was exciting to be a part of something so massive, but also to be in it together. Minutes before the race everyone scattered for the long lines of the portable washrooms, and then tried to merge into the huddled masses as they moved towards the start line. Then we just ran for 13.1 miles, mostly along Lake Shore Dr., encouraged by bands set up along the way and loud speakers pumping Bruce Springsteen or Rhianna, and lots of volunteers, friends, family and strangers.
It was a beautiful day. My sister Mar really kept pace for me along the way. And when my sister Mag jumped in at mile 11, Mar checked to see if I was okay, then ran up ahead of us. Mag brought me up the last couple miles, just a little more, and then [Heshima Kenya
co-founder] Anne ran the home stretch with me, straight through to the finish line, arms up. 2 hours and 25 minutes, 9,628th place! They even had a medal for me. I was wobbly, sort of numb, and very happy to be done.
Thanks very much for contributing to Heshima Kenya and encouraging me on my run! And thanks to my family and friends for coming out to witness! And thanks to the Team; I’m very proud to have run with them. The community is strong, even half-way across the world.
Love,
Pete.
P.S. I’ve attached a picture of my sister Mar and me at the end of the race, stretching it out. It sums it all up: she’s tough, I’m about to cry.
Blithe Spirit 