Posted on 02/07/2005 9:37:00 AM PST by Pat79thST
In 1910,Charles Comiskey constructed the home of the Chicago White Sox at 35th & Shields. Like the Chicago Cardinals, who would play at Comsikey, the White Sox represented Catholic Chicago.
The North Side team was even stained by the rumor that its owner supported the Ku Klux Klan, which targeted Catholics, Jews, & Blacks. Shields Street ran through Bridgeport, as Catholic a neighborhood as one could find anywhere? There were eight Catholic parishes in Bridgeport's one and one half square miles.
Shields Ave. was named for Gen. James J. Shields. Up in Lake County - Shields Township was named for James J. Shields. No textbook tells the story of James J. Shields. He is a dead man. He was a, penniless Irish Cathoic immigrant who arrived in America in the 1820's without a friend or patron,a soldier, a teacher, a lawyer, a judge, an Illinois Supreme Court Justice, a State Auditor(Comptroller) who saved Illinois from bankruptcy in 1837, a State Representative, A Brevet Major General in the Mexican War, a US Senator for Illinois, appointed Territorial Governor of Oregon ( resigned), military Governor of Tampico, Mexico, Territorial Land Agent, US Senator for Minnesota, Brigadier General of Union troops and the only Union General to defeat Stonewall Jackson, and Us Senator for Missouri.
Shields challenged Lincoln to a duel after Lincoln attempted to lampoon Shields in the Sangamo Journal. Lincoln retracted his writings and the two men became good friends. Shields walked with giants he was loyal and constant friend of Stephan A. Douglas, Zachary Taylor, Winfield Scott, Henry Clay, and was the coomanding officer of Capt. Robert E. Lee in the War with Mexico. A Courageous soldier whose wounds to his lungs ( at Cerro Gordo), his legs, Chapultepec, Shoulder and shattered arm (at Kernstown where he defeated Stonewall Jackson) are as nothing compared to cavalier treatment of his life and accomplishments by our generations.
On Monday, Illinois Republican Robert Pritchard (70th) pushed through HJR0008 intended to honor President Reagan with a statue in National Statuary Hall. In 2000, Congress enacted protocols that allow States to remove one statue and replace it with another. Each State in the Union is allowed 2 statues. Illinois features James J. Shields and Frances Willard.
In recent decades, leaders of the Prohibitionist/Suffragist movement have become icons of Feminism. These Bloomer girls sought to check the power of immigrant votes by closing the saloons which were political recruitment tools. End Bossism! Away with the Saloon! Balance that with the Woman's Vote - because women would Prohibition. These were the Progressives. Today they are icons of courage. Frances Willard and Elizabeth Cady-Stanton were begged by Ida B. Wells to condemn the lynching of Black men in the south. The WCTU woman refused because white southern womanhood was in danger - get rid of the saloons first. That is Progressive.
Ironically, the very party seeking to honor President Reagan are working to undermine the life of an American Ronald reagan would have loved to play on the big screen. Ronald Reagan was never frightened of Political Correctness. HJR 0008 seems to dodge a charge of gender bashing by unseating Shields from his place in the National Statuary Hall, where he has stood for America since 1893.
Because Shields is dead, was a man, an Irish Catholic, a Democrat, a warrior, and larger than life itself is no reason to knock him off History's pedestal. The Old Roman, Comiskey, sems to have had a better sense of community, justice, and moral courage, than our generations.
Nonetheless, the headline is an outrage, clearly designed to pit Catholics against Republicans. Which state *should* honor Reagan? California? Ha!
And the appeal against suffragists, asserting that they opposed saloons because they were anti-Catholic is contemptable. THe suffragists were moralists, who considered saveral popular forms of immorality - like drunkenness and promiscuity - as a threat to marriage. If Catholics were politically dominated by the corruption of saloon politics, shutting down the saloons would've been a blessing. It's like calling pro-lifers anti-Christian because they oppose Democratic hustlers, like Jesse Jackson, and Jesse Jackson is a reverend.
And I wrote that before I found out you really are a democrat!
I see you also posted a similar story last week:
Illinois Republicans Insult a Hero Reagan Would Have Loved
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1335909/posts
Let's see what else is relevant:
An admitted Dailey Democrat?
Why We Lose-A Democrat describes his party's long-term decline.
Posted by Pat79thST to SJackson
On News/Activism 02/03/2005 8:48:27 AM CST · 24 of 48
There are more than many of us old time Democrats - call us Daley Democrats,
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1334968/posts
Pat79thST
Since Dec 1, 2004
The point of the post is in plain view. A Republican Rep. wants to shove Shields aside and leave Frances Willard and put Ronald Reagan's statue in its place. This is an afront to Catholics. This is an affront to historical truth. Try not to see Martians in the cabbage patch.
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