I WILL BE SIGNING BOOKS AT THE DEEP RIVER CT. LIBRARY ON OCT. 3 (Saturday) FROM 2-4, PLEASE DROP BY IF YOU CAN
I WILL BE SIGNING BOOKS AND SPEAKING AT MT.ST. JOHNS ON OCT 3, PLEASE DROP BY IF YOU CAN IT ALL GOES TO A GREAT CAUSE
MY LATEST BOOK, AVAILABLE ON AMAZON AND AT ALL BARNES AND NOBLE STORES
This is a book of short stories taken
from the things I saw and heard in my childhood in the factory town of Ansonia
in southwestern Connecticut. Most of these stories, or as true as I recall them
because I witnessed these events many years ago through the eyes of child and are
retold to you now with the pen and hindsight of an older man. The only
exception is the story Beat Time
which is based on the disappearance of Beat poet Lew Welch. Decades before I
knew who Welch was, I was told that he had made his from California to New
Haven, Connecticut, where was an alcoholic living in a mission. The notion
fascinated me and I filed it away but never forgot it.
The collected stories are loosely
modeled around Joyce’s novel, Dubliners (I
also borrowed from the novels character and place names. Ivy Day, my character in “Local Orphan is Hero” is also the name
of chapter in Dubliners, etc.) and like Joyce I wanted to write about my
people, the people I knew as a child, the working class in small town America
and I wanted to give a complete view of them as well. As a result the stories
are about the divorced, Gays, black people, the working poor, the middle class,
the lost and the found, the contented and the discontented.
Conversely
many of the stories in this book are about starting life over again as a result
of suicide (The Hanging Party, Small
Town Tragedy, Beat
Time) or from a near death experience
(Anna Bell Lee and the Charge of the
Light Brigade, A Brief Summer)
and
natural occurring death. (The
Best Laid Plans, The Winter Years, Balanced and Serene)
With
the exception of Jesus Loves Shaqunda, in each story there is a rebirth
from the death. (Shaqunda is
reported as having died of pneumonia in The Winter Years)
Sal,
the desperate and depressed divorcee in Things
Change, changes his life in Lunch
Hour when asks the waitress for a date and she accepts. (Which we learn in Closing Time, the last story in the
book) In The Arranged Time,
Thisby is given the option of change and whether she takes it or, we don’t
know. The death of Greta’s husband in A Matter of Time has led her to the
diner and into the waiting arms of the outgoing and loveable Gabe.
Although
the book is based on three sets of time (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and the
diner is opened in the early morning and closed at night, time stands still
inside the Diner. The hour on the big clock on the wall never changes time and
much like my memories of that place, everything remains the same.
http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir/dp/
In
1962, six year old John Tuohy, his two brothers and two sisters entered
Connecticut’s foster care system and were promptly split apart. Over the next
ten years, John would live in more than ten foster homes, group homes and state
schools, from his native Waterbury to Ansonia, New Haven, West Haven, Deep
River and Hartford. In the end, a decade later, the state returned him to the
same home and the same parents they had taken him from. As tragic as is funny
compelling story will make you cry and laugh as you journey with this child to
overcome the obstacles of the foster care system and find his dreams.
http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir/dp/0692361294/
http://amemoirofalifeinfostercare.blogspot.com/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John
William Tuohy is a writer who lives in Washington DC. He holds an MFA in
writing from Lindenwood University. He is the author of numerous non-fiction on
the history of organized crime including the ground break biography of
bootlegger Roger Tuohy "When Capone's Mob Murdered Touhy" and
"Guns and Glamour: A History of Organized Crime in Chicago."
His
non-fiction crime short stories have appeared in The New Criminologist,
American Mafia and other publications. John won the City of Chicago's Celtic
Playfest for his work The Hannigan's of Beverly, and his short story fiction
work, Karma Finds Franny Glass, appeared in AdmitTwo Magazine in October of
2008.
His
play, Cyberdate.Com, was chosen for a public performance at the Actors Chapel
in Manhattan in February of 2007 as part of the groups Reading Series for New
York project. In June of 2008, the play won the Virginia Theater of The First
Amendment Award for best new play.
Contact
John:
MYWRITERSSITE.BLOGSPOT.COM
JWTUOHY95@GMAIL.COM
Excerpt from my book "No Time to Say Goodbye: Memoirs of a Life in Foster Care.
Although I had liberated myself, it was not a
liberating, rejuvenating experience. No, it was just sad, on a dozen different
levels, for a dozen different reasons. I loved these people and all the things
connected to them, and now it was all going to go away, and I had done that
too, with only words. Calm, cool, collected words. How many times had I watched
with envy and amazement while other kids quarreled with their parents, only to
have the parents reassess the situation, acknowledge the child’s concerns and
not slap them or threaten them? I hadn’t known what that process was, but now I
understood it. The parent was recognizing the child as a person, not as an
income source or object of abuse, but as a human being with choices and values
and decisions to make. They recognized the child as somebody.
I wasn’t
anybody, but I had taken the first step. After you become who you are, you
start becoming a better version of yourself. I walked a little taller. I was
happier. I didn’t let Helen and Walter’s disapproval of me and everything I did
affect me anymore. I had decided to be someone instead of something.
The social
worker, whose name and face I cannot recall, arrived two weeks later and took
me out for hamburgers.
“Why do
you want leave Ansonia, John?” he asked.
I told
him almost everything.
“Yeah,” he
said, taking the pickles from his burger. “We figured something wasn’t right in
that house, but you kids never said anything.” He looked at me and said, “Okay,
where do you want to go?”
I hadn’t
really thought about it.
“I dunno,”
I said. “What are my choices?”
“Well,” he
said, like a man about to deliver bad news, “you don’t have a lot of choices.
Frankly, finding another foster home is going to be tough because of your age.
Foster families just don’t want teenagers, John; teenagers are difficult to
handle.” He put up his hand and added, “Not you; you’re a good kid, and I
admire what you’re doing here.”
He sighed
and gazed out the window, and then back at me, and said, “Gosh, I mean, wow.
Are you sure you can’t work this out with the Wozniaks?”
My mouth
went dry and I felt my face turning red. I pushed the table into his chest.
“No, but I can go to the cops with Denny and tell them that they broke my ribs
and threw us downstairs and kicked us and you didn’t do anything about it.”
He raised
his hand for me to stop. “You never told us anything about that.”
“That’s what you say,” I snapped. “We’ll say the
truth.”
He stared
into my eyes to see if I meant it. When he decided I did, he smiled a little
and said, “I just wanted to make sure you really felt strongly about this,
John.”
“I could
go live with my father.”
“Your
father doesn’t want you,” he answered. “I’m not going to beat around the bush
on that one. And your mother isn’t financially able or emotionally capable in
any other way to take you in; you know that.”
“That’s
not true about my father,” I said, but I knew what he said was true, and my
affliction started to make me shake my leg.
“I’ll
bring him around,” he said. “You can ask him yourself.”
I thought
it through quickly. If he was right, if my father didn’t want me, that was a
feather in the Wozniaks’ cap and it might even be a reason for the state to
keep me in Ansonia. “Well,” I asked meekly, “where else can I go?”
“They
have these places, they’re called group homes,” he said. ‘They’re sort of new,
so there aren’t too many of them, and there’s a long list to get in, but I’ll
see what I can do.”
Although I
didn’t know why he would do it, I sensed that he would drag his feet until I
gave up and stayed in Ansonia for another five years, until I was eighteen and
could leave on my own.
With my
paper route money, I had subscribed to Boys’
Life, a publication from the Boy Scouts, and I noticed the dozens of ads in
the back pages for military academies for boys my age.
“How about
a military school?” I asked.
“I don’t
think there are any in Connecticut,” he said, “and it doesn’t work that way.”
I liked the
notion of not living with another family, of not having to go through all of
the stress and strain or fitting in again. A school seemed like the perfect fit.
“There are
schools for foster kids,” he said, “but I have to tell you, those places aren’t
a walk in the park. Mostly inner-city kids. Those are rough places. Let me see
what I can do.”
A week
later, the social worker called and told Helen that Mount Saint John School in
the village of Deep River, in the Connecticut River Valley, had an opening. He
would pick me up on Halloween Day and take me to the school to live.
For the
remainder of my time in Ansonia, Helen and Walter made me feel that by giving
up on them I was weak, some sort of ingrate. But I wasn’t. Nor was I giving up.
I was letting go. There is a difference. And letting go doesn’t mean you’re
weak. Sometimes it means you’re strong, strong enough to see things as they
really are and strong enough to let go of them. And you have to be mentally and
morally tough to do that. It also means that you have a set standard for how
you will allow the world to treat you. Letting go is part of the process of
learning to love yourself.
I had made
what I see now as a brave decision, a total commitment to move on with my life.
And despite what the Wozniaks said, I didn’t arrive at that decision overnight.
It took me several painful months to decide to leave the home I knew, where I
had lived for most of my short life. But as young as I was, I knew there was a
better life, and that I had to go and find it. I think that the mistakes, the
disappointments, defeats, and despairs that I found in Ansonia are tools that
God gives to orphans to help us build a new road to new and better lives. I
prefer to see those setbacks as a gift from the heavens rather than mere
waysides in the human journey through life.
It didn’t
seem real that I was leaving my home of almost nine years until the morning I
was to go. Helen came into the bedroom with brown paper bags from the grocery
store and began packing my clothes into the bags. From the window I saw the
social worker standing by the car. He didn’t want to come in. I didn’t blame
him.
There was
no turning back now, and I was terrified. I was thirteen. Helen and Walter and
Denny were the only family I knew, and in a few minutes I would probably never
see them again.
I would
miss Denny tremendously. The Wozniaks sent him to school that day so he wasn’t
around to see me off. Without him, the last shred of a life that could have
been was over. I was alone in the world.
As I
collected my brown paper bags from the bed that had been mine and walked down
the stairs and out to the car, I felt that everything in my world had failed
and everyone in my world was a disappointment.
It was a
wet, miserable, and cold October morning. The Wozniaks stood on the sidewalk
and stared in the general direction of the social worker, who was standing on
the other side of the street next to his black sedan. They seemed to be in a
trance. I saw Nana and Papa taking it all in from the parlor windows. They had
long since stopped talking to me, the ingrate pauper who had sullied their
son’s good name. When Papa learned I was leaving he said to me, “Kid, you got
the balls of an alley cat.” It was the last thing he ever said to me.
Before
crossing the street, I stopped and smiled at Helen and Walter. After being a
part of each other’s lives for so long there was so much I wanted to say, but
they looked away.
“I’m
leaving,” I said.
They
nodded. No tears or remembrances, no embraces, not even a handshake. I stared
at them in disbelief. They could at least acknowledge that I was standing in
front of them, but they didn’t. It hit me then, they weren’t sad; they were
angry. In their view, they were the victims.
“Goodbye,”
I mumbled, and picked up my bag and walked to the black sedan with the state
logo emblazoned on the side doors.
It hurt to
go. It really did. It hurt more that I had no one to tell: “This is my home. I
want to stay here but I can’t and I’m in pain because of it.” So I left
silently.
At the
very end, the Wozniaks put on a heartfelt performance. They cried, and the
social worker was moved, and as we drove away he turned to me and said in an
agitated way, “For Christ’s sakes, kid, at least wave goodbye,” so I did. But I
did it only to appease him. He didn’t notice that they never touched me or
kissed my cheek or embraced me or wished me the best or told me to stay in touch.
Nothing. Helen had often said, “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall
never be disappointed.” They would never forgive me for leaving. I guess it’s
true that it is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.
When the
car pulled away and I turned again to look at them they had already gone back
into the house. They were disappointed in me, and I in them. I guess nobody
ever gets what they want when it comes to love.
They were
no better than common thieves. They
stole our childhood. But even with that,
I was heartbroken that I would not know the Wozniaks anymore, the only people
who came close to being parents to me. I
would be conscious of their absence for the rest of my life. I needed them. You know, if you think about it, we all need
each other. But even with all of the evidence against the Wozniaks, I had
conflicted emotions about them, then and now. They were the closest I had to a
real family and real parents.
But now I
was bankrupt of any feelings at all towards them at all.
I felt
then, and feel now, a great sense of loss. I felt as if I were burying them.
when I never really had them to lose in the first place. Disillusioned is
probably a better word. In fact the very definition of disillusionment is a
sense of loss for something you never had. When you are disillusioned and
disappointed enough times, you stop hoping. That’s what happens to many foster
kids. We become loners, not because we enjoy the solitude, but because we let
people into our lives and they disappoint us. So we close up and travel alone.
Even in a crowd, we’re alone.
Because I survived, I was one of the lucky ones.
Why is it so hard to articulate love, yet so easy to express disappointment?
I had a
sense that I was traveling down a long twisting path that grew darker with
every step I took away from Pond Street, a path with no way back. I’d been in foster care for nine years, and
in that time I had been moved six times and now, once again, it was time to
take again all the broken stuff in my life, all the failures and
disappointments, and weave them into a spiritual parachute. Then, at least,
they were good for something.
Sculpture this and Sculpture
that
DON'T YOU JUST LOVE POP ART?
DON’T WORRY-BE HAPPY
By Sarah Pulliam Bailey
The Washington Post
A new study suggests that joining
a religious group could do more for someone's "sustained happiness"
than other forms of social participation, such as volunteering, playing sports
or taking a class.
A study in the American Journal
of Epidemiology by researchers at the London School of Economics and Erasmus
University Medical Center in the Netherlands found that the secret to sustained
happiness lies in participation in religion.
"The church appears to play
a very important social role in keeping depression at bay and also as a coping
mechanism during periods of illness in later life," Mauricio Avendano, an
epidemiologist at LSE and an author of the study, said in a statement. "It
is not clear to us how much this is about religion per se, or whether it may be
about the sense of belonging and not being socially isolated."
Researchers looked at four areas:
1) volunteering or working with a charity; 2) taking educational courses; 3)
participating in religious organizations; 4) participating in a political or
community organization. Of the four, participating in a religious organization
was the only social activity associated with sustained happiness, researchers
found.
The study analyzed 9,000
Europeans who were older than 50. The report that studied older Europeans also
found that joining political or community organizations lost their benefits
over time. In fact, the short-term benefits from those social connections often
lead to depressive symptoms later on, researchers say.
Although healthier people are
more likely to volunteer, the researchers found no evidence that volunteering
actually leads to better mental health. Benefits could be outweighed by other
negative impacts of volunteering, such as stress, Avendano said.
The researchers noted that it is
unclear whether the benefits of participating in a religious organization are
connected to being in the religious community, or to the faith itself.
GOOD WORDS
TO HAVE………………..
"Time is money."
"Time is the great physician." "Time is a dressmaker
specializing in alterations." Everyone seems to know what time is, but
what does it mean to be "timeless"—that is, "without time"?
Until around the turn of the 20th century, timeless was sometimes used to mean
"untimely" or "premature," as in "he met his timeless
end." That usage, which dates back to the late 16th century, is now
considered archaic, but an equally venerable sense, "eternal" or "having
no beginning or end," has proven more enduring. The two remaining senses
are somewhat newer. The "not restricted to a particular time or date"
meaning dates to the mid-18th century, while the most modern
meaning—"ageless"—didn't exist until just before the turn of the 20th
century. (By the way, the quotations we started with came from Benjamin
Franklin, British statesman Benjamin Disraeli, and American writer Faith
Baldwin, respectively.)
HERE'S PLEASANT POEM FOR YOU TO ENJOY................
Soaking Up Sun
Tom Hennen
Today there is a kind of sunshine old men love,
the kind of day when my grandfather would sit
on the south side of the wooden corncrib where
the sunlight warmed slowly all through the day
like a wood stove. One after another dry leaves
fell. No painful memories came. Everything was
lit by a halo of light. The cornstalks glinted bright
as pieces of glass. From fields and cottonwood
grove came the damp smell of mushrooms, of
things gone back to earth. I sat with my grandfa-
ther then. Sheep came up to us as we sat there,
their oily wool so warm to my fingers, like a strange
and magic snow. My grandfather whittled sweet
smelling apple sticks just to get the scent. His
thumb had a permanent groove in it where the
back of the knife blade rested. He let me listen to
the wind, the wild geese, the soft dialect of sheep,
while his own silence taught me every secret thing
he knew.
Tom Hennen (born 1942, Morris, Minnesota) is a poet. He grew up on
a farm and began work in 1965 as a letterpress and offset printer. Switching
careers, he then worked for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
wildlife section in the 1970s and later as a wildlife technician at the Sand
Lake National Wildlife Refuge in South Dakota. He is now retired.
In 1972 he helped found the Minnesota Writers’ Publishing House
(MWPH), a publishing cooperative, backed by Robert and Carol Bly, established
to highlight Midwestern literature. For many years, Hennen operated the MWPH
press in his garage.
Hennen’s poetry has been further honored by the presentation of
Bachelor Farmer Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts.
Hennen belongs to a cohort of Minnesota poets strongly influenced
by Robert Bly, Louis Jenkins and Bill Holm (poet). He is a poet of the
landscape—in the words of Bly, his poems have an “ability to bring immense
amounts of space, often uninhabited space, into his mind and so into the whole
poem.” This yearning to describe the feeling of space has led to his extensive
use of the prose poem, where he has found room to “move freely within the
rectangular tract of the paragraph.”
Hennen’s most recent book, Darkness Sticks to Everything:
Collected and New Poems was published in 2013 by Copper Canyon Press. Novelist
and poet Jim Harrison introduces the volume, calling Hennen “a genius of the
common touch.”
Dana Jennings writes in the New York Times, "It's hard to
believe that this American master - and I don't use those words lightly - has
been hidden right under our noses for decades."
HERE'S SOME NICE ART FOR YOU TO LOOK AT....ENJOY!
Jackson Pollock
Jan Sluijters 1881 1957 dutch
I LOVE BLACK AND WHITE
PHOTOS
Northern Ireland
WHY THE WORLD NEEDS EDITORS.....................
THE ART OF PULP
THE ART OF WAR...............................
THE MOB UNDER SURVEILLANCE
ROY DEMEO, THE KILLING MACHINE
THE MOB UNDER SURVEILLANCE
ROY DEMEO, THE KILLING MACHINE
With Philly testa
Photographs I’ve taken
I wrote this bill of rights for foster children several years ago.
There many other versions written by other people and almost all of them are
worth trying. It's your county. What's happening in foster care in America is
being carried out with your money and in your name. You have a right to do
something about it.
THE NATIONAL FOSTER
CHILDREN’S BILL OF RIGHTS
As a
child, a ward of the government and as an American citizen, you are protected
by the people of the United States of America, by our laws, by our courts and
by our government.
You
should be aware that you have specific rights while you are in foster care.
Those rights are as follows:
-You have
the right to be treated with dignity and respect and to live in dignity and
self-respect.
- No one
has the right to harm you, to strike you or to commit physical violence upon
you. If anyone harms you, strikes you or commits physical violence upon you,
you have a right to discuss this abuse with your caseworker, your foster care
provider, teachers or police officers. You cannot and will not be punished or
harmed further for discussing the abuse with these people.
-You have
the right to live in a foster home that is safe, comfortable and healthy.
-You have
a right to practice your religion, no matter what that religion might be. You
also have a right not to be forced to practice any religion.
-You have
the right to attend all court hearings that concern you.
-You have
the right to be represented in court by an Attorney. The government will pay
the attorney to represent you.
-You have
a right to meet with your caseworker at least once a month.
-The
information you share with your casework about your placement is confidential.
That is, your caseworker is forbidden by law to discuss your conversations
beyond people with a need to know.
-You have
a right to visit your family. That right cannot not be taken from you and it is
illegal to threaten you with taking that right from you.
-You have
the right to be placed with a relative as an alternative to foster home care.
-You have
a right to live with your siblings, meaning your brothers and sisters.
-You have
the right to live in a foster home as opposed to a group home.
-You have
a right to participate in any plan for your benefit and future.
-You have
the right to be provided with adequate and nourishing food, shelter and
clothing.
-You have
a right to your own belongings. You have a right to keep any money you have
earned or been given.
-You
cannot be forced to take medication that has not been prescribed by a doctor
and that has the prior approval of your caseworker.
-You have
the right to receive confidential phone calls and to have your mail come to you
unopened.
-At the
proper age, you have the right to participate in an Independent Living Skills
Program.
-You have
the right to file a complaint about the type of care you are receiving from
your caregivers or your caseworker.
-You have
the right to prompt medical treatment.
-You have
the right to speak to a counselor or therapist if you feel the need.
-You
cannot be taken out of foster care without a hearing before the proper
authorities.
IRISH-AMERICAN STUFF, BUT, YOU KNOW, ANYBODY CAN READ IT IF THEY WANT
Breakfast
Full Irish breakfast
Is
maith an t-anlann an t-ocras" (Hunger is the best sauce)
A
typical full Irish breakfast, which can change slightly depending upon the
area, can include sausages, black and white pudding, bacon and fried eggs, toast,
sautéed, sliced potato, fried tomato and sautéed mushrooms. (Black pudding may not appeal to the American
senses. Basically, Black Pudding is a type of sausage made by cooking dried
blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled off. White
Pudding is essentially the same thing, but without the blood. Rather, it
(usually) contains bits of pork meat and fat, or suet or bread or oatmeal,
which is then formed into a sausage. Breakfast is usually topped off with tea
(served with milk) and fried potato bread.
Ingredients
needed for this dish
1 link pork
sausage
5-6 slices lean
bacon
1 inch of
thickly sliced disks of white pudding sausage
1 inch of
thickly sliced disks of blood pudding sausage
5 button
mushrooms
4 eggs
1 tablespoon of
butter
Salt and pepper
Irish brown
bread
Heinz ketchup
2 glasses of
freshly squeezed orange juice
Irish tea, 1
pot
Cooking
Instructions
Heat a frying pan with a little oil. Fry the sausages
slowly over a medium heat - keep turning. Add the pudding to the pan and
continue to cook. Put sausages and pudding on a plate and keep warm in the oven.
Place rashers on frying pan and cook until color has darkened and they crisp -
transfer to oven. Add more oil to the frying pan and sauté the mushrooms. Add
eggs (Your own preference) and fry in any desired style. Add the salt and
pepper to the mushrooms. Serve all Ingredients on a plate with crusty French
bread. Add ketchup to taste
“A
silent mouth is melodious.” Irish
Proverb
Pope
Francis Tells Congress to Abolish The Death Penalty
BY ALICE OLLSTEIN SEP 24, 2015
10:06AM
In his first ever visit to the
U.S. and first speech ever to Congress, Pope Francis called on the nation’s
hundreds of representatives to make the death penalty a thing of the past.
“Every life is sacred, every
human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only
benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes,” he said.
“Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for
the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also
offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary
punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of
rehabilitation.”
Pope Francis said his stance on
the issue stems from belief in the Golden Rule, continuing: “If we want
security, let us give security; if we want life, let us give life; if we want
opportunities, let us provide opportunities. The yardstick we use for others
will be the yardstick which time will use for us. The Golden Rule also reminds
us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its
development.”
Sitting in the House chambers
listening to the speech were several members of the U.S. Supreme Court, which
earlier this year issued an opinion upholding the use of a controversial lethal
injection drug used in several drawn out, painful, botched executions. The
decision went beyond allowing the continued use of a method some consider
torture, but defended the entire concept of the death penalty as immune to
legal challenge.
Yet one of the Court’s most
devout Catholic members, Justice Antonin Scalia, recently suggested they could
soon reconsider. Speaking to students at Rhodes College, Scalia said at least
four of his colleagues believe the death penalty to be unconstitutional under
the Eighth Amendment, which bans cruel and unusual punishment.
The Holy See’s call for death
penalty abolition is also likely to energize the millions of American
church-goers who agree with him, and who have been pushing across the country
for a more humane criminal justice system. Faith-based activism, particularly
from Catholics, played a major role in Nebraska passing a bill to end the death
penalty earlier this year.
WE NEED PAID FAMILY LEAVE FOR AMERICANS
By ANNE-MARIE SLAUGHTERSEPT. 18,
2015
FOR many Americans, life has
become all competition all the time. Workers across the socioeconomic spectrum,
from hotel housekeepers to surgeons, have stories about toiling 12- to 16-hour
days (often without overtime pay) and experiencing anxiety attacks and
exhaustion. Public health experts have begun talking about stress as an
epidemic.
The people who can compete and
succeed in this culture are an ever-narrower slice of American society: largely
young people who are healthy, and wealthy enough not to have to care for family
members. An individual company can of course favor these individuals, as health
insurers once did, and then pass them off to other businesses when they become
parents or need to tend to their own parents. But this model of winning at all
costs reinforces a distinctive American pathology of not making room for
caregiving. The result: We hemorrhage talent and hollow out our society.
To begin with, we are losing
women. America has unlocked the talent of its women in a way that few nations
can match; girls are outpacing boys in high schools, universities and graduate
schools and are now entering the work force at higher salaries. But the ranks
of those women still thin significantly as they rise toward the top, from more
than 50 percent at entry level to 10 to 20 percent in senior management. Far
too many discover that what was once a manageable and enjoyable work-family
balance can no longer be sustained — regardless of ambition, confidence or even
a partner who shares tasks equally.
Every family’s situation is
different; some women may be able to handle with ease conditions that don’t
work for others. But many women who started out with all the ambition in the
world find themselves in a place they never expected to be. They do not choose
to leave their jobs; they are shut out by the refusal of their bosses to make
it possible for them to fit their family life and their work life together. In
her book “Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home,” the
sociologist Pamela Stone calls this a “forced choice.” “Denial of requests to
work part time, layoffs or relocations,” she writes, will push even the most
ambitious woman out of the work force.
A young lawyer I know from
Virginia was offered a general counsel position, which she determined she could
take but only if she could work from home one day a week to be with her two
children. Her employer refused. Still another woman wrote to me about her
aspiration to an executive-level position and the predicament of doing so with
a 2-year-old at home: “The dilemma is in no way the result of having a toddler:
After all, executive men seem to enjoy increased promotions with every
additional offspring. It is the way work continues to be circumscribed as
something that happens ‘in an office,’ and/or ‘between 8–6’ that causes such
conflict. I haven’t yet been presented with a shred of reasonable justification
for insisting my job requires me to be sitting in this fixed, 15 sq foot room,
20 miles from my home.”
The problem is even more acute
for the 42 million women in America on the brink of poverty. Not showing up for
work because a child has an ear infection, schools close for a snow day, or an
elderly parent must go to the doctor puts their jobs at risk, and losing their
jobs means that they can no longer care properly for their children — some 28
million — and other relatives who depend on them. They are often suffering not
only from too little flexibility but also too much, as many low-wage service
jobs no longer have a guaranteed number of hours a week.
This looks like a “women’s
problem,” but it’s not. It’s a work problem — the problem of an antiquated and
broken system. When law firms and corporations lose talented women who reject
lock-step career paths and question promotion systems that elevate quantity of
hours worked over quality of the work itself, the problem is not with thewomen.
When an abundance of overly rigid workplaces causes 42 million American
citizens to live day to day in fear that just one single setback will prevent
them from being able to care for their children, it’s not their problem, but
ours.
THE problem is with the
workplace, or more precisely, with a workplace designed for the “Mad Men” era,
for “Leave It to Beaver” families in which one partner does all the work of
earning an income and the other partner does all the work of turning that
income into care — the care that is indispensable for our children, our sick
and disabled, our elderly. Our families and our responsibilities don’t look
like that anymore, but our workplaces do not fit the realities of our lives.
Irene Padavic, a Florida State
sociologist, Robin J. Ely, a Harvard Business School professor, and Erin Reid
from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business were asked to conduct a
detailed studyof a midsize global consulting firm where top management thought
they had a “gender problem.” The firm had a paucity of women at the highest
levels — just 10 percent of partners were women, compared with nearly 40
percent of junior associates.
After careful study, Professors
Padavic, Ely and Reid found that an equal number of men and women had left the
firm in the preceding three years, a simple fact that contradicted management’s
women, work and family story. Some of the men also left because of the long
hours; others “suffered in silence or otherwise made do.” The firm’s key human
resources problem was not gender, as management believed, but rather a culture
of overwork.
The firm’s leadership resisted
these findings. They didn’t want to be told that they needed to overhaul their
entire organizational philosophy or that they were overpromising to clients and
overdelivering (for example, making hundred-slide PowerPoint presentations that
the client couldn’t even use). They wanted to be told that the firm’s problem
was work-family conflict for women, a narrative that would allow them to adopt
a set of policies specifically aimed at helping women work part time, or be
mentored, or join support networks. As Professors Padavic, Ely and Reid wryly
concluded, their attitude “required a rejection of evidence on the part of
evidence-driven analysts.”
Bad work culture is everyone’s
problem, for men just as much as for women. It’s a problem for working parents,
not just working mothers. For working children who need time to take care of
their own parents, not just working daughters. For anyone who does not have the
luxury of a full-time lead parent or caregiver at home.
But there’s good news. Men are
also beginning to ask for and take paternity leave and to take lead parent
roles. According to a continuing study by the Families and Work Institute, only
a third of employed millennial men think that couples should take on
traditional gender roles. Some tech companies warring for talent are also
beginning to compete by offering longer paternity leaves, which will hardly
affect the average American workplace, but is a sign of changing cultural
attitudes.
EVEN if men and women join forces
to demand changes in the workplace, though, we cannot do this alone, as
individuals trying to make our lives work and as workers and bosses trying to
make room for care. Some other company can always keep prices down by demanding
more, burning out its employees and casting them aside when they are done. To
be fully competitive as a country, we are going to have to emulate other
industrialized countries and build an infrastructure of care. We used to have
one; it was called women at home. But with 57 percent of those women in the
labor force, that infrastructure has crumbled and it’s not coming back.
To support care just as we
support competition, we will need some combination of the following:
high-quality and affordable child care and elder care; paid family and medical
leave for women and men; a right to request part-time or flexible work; investment
in early education comparable to our investment in elementary and secondary
education; comprehensive job protection for pregnant workers; higher wages and
training for paid caregivers; community support structures to allow elders to
live at home longer; and reform of elementary and secondary school schedules to
meet the needs of a digital rather than an agricultural economy.
These proposals are not so
far-fetched as they may seem. President Obama put forward proposals to expand
access to affordable, high-quality child care in his 2016 budget. Hillary
Rodham Clinton has made providing a foundation for working families, including
child care, one of the central aspects of her campaign. One of the few states
that offers paid family leave (workers pay the cost out of a small increase in
their payroll tax) is New Jersey, under the Republican governor Chris Christie.
Republican senators have
sponsored a bill that would allow employers to offer employees paid leave hours
instead of overtime pay; some polls show that a majority of women who vote
Republican support paid family leave. Senator Kelly Ayotte, Republican of New
Hampshire, is co-leader of a bipartisan caucus across both the Senate and the
House devoted to assisting family caregivers. She follows in the footsteps of
former Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, who successfully
sponsored legislation to allow homemakers to contribute to retirement accounts
the same way that salaried workers can. And as the baby boom becomes an elder
boom, we can expect a whole new constituency for care, on both sides of the
aisle.
Change in our individual
workplaces and in our broader politics also depends on culture change:
fundamental shifts in the way we think, talk and confer prestige. If we really
valued care, we would not regard time out for caregiving — for your children,
parents, spouse, sibling or any other member of your extended or constructed
family — as a black hole on a résumé. We would see it as engaging in a
socially, personally and professionally valuable activity. We would see men who
lean out for care as role models just as much as women who lean in for work. We
would think managing kids matters as much as managing money.
Impossible, right? Yet I grew up
in a society where my mother set out little vases of cigarettes on the table at
dinner parties, where blacks and whites had to use different bathrooms, and in
which almost everyone claimed to be heterosexual. That seems a lifetime ago,
but I’m not so old. Our world has changed over the past 50 years, vastly for
the better from the point of view of African-Americans, the L.G.B.T. community
and families who lost loved ones to lung cancer. Given the magnitude of that
change, think about how much we can still do.
We can, all of us, stand up for
care. Until we do, men and women will never be equal; not while both are
responsible for providing cash but only women are responsible for providing
care. And though individual Americans might win out in our current system,
America as a whole will never be as competitive as it ought to be. If we do not
act, over time our families and communities, the foundation of our flourishing,
will wither.
The women’s movement has brought
many of us the right to compete on equal terms; it’s time for all of us to
claim an equal right to care.
Anne-Marie Slaughter is the
president of New America, a think tank and civic enterprise, and author of the
forthcoming “Unfinished Business: Women Men Work Family,” from which this essay
is adapted.
Why
Paid Leave Matters for the Future of Business
Stew Friedman
At this time of year, as students
return to campus, I always find myself reflecting on why I became a professor
and the principles I’m about to teach the business leaders of tomorrow. But
this year has been especially exciting, as employers have increasingly
announced family-friendly policy changes — and as President Obama has just taken
a historic step to increase access to paid sick leave for government employees,
while also calling for an unprecedented U.S. national paid leave law.
I am now even more confident that
the U.S. is in the midst of revolutionary change in how we think about what
defines a successful business and a successful life. Companies and lawmakers
are beginning to realize what many of us have long known – that what is good
for workers and their families is good for business and our economy, and that
improvement at the national level is long overdue.
This is why I am proud that more
than 200 of my esteemed colleagues from business and management schools across
the country are joining me this week in urging Congress to recognize the
widespread benefits of ensuring all workers have access to paid family and
medical leave. For the sake of the future business leaders we teach and the
workforces they will direct, in this letter we call for passage of the Family
And Medical Insurance Leave (FAMILY) Act.
The FAMILY Act would allow
workers to earn a portion of their pay while they take up to 12 weeks of leave
to deal with a serious health condition, including pregnancy or childbirth, or
to care for a child, parent, or partner who has one. Leave could also be taken
for the adoption of a child or for certain military caregiving needs. It would
be paid for through small contributions from employers and employees.
Right now, millions of workers
are forced to choose between job and family when serious illnesses or injuries
arise. Just 13% of workers have access to paid family leave through their
employers, and fewer than 40% have access to employer-provided personal medical
leave. Data, within and across firms, show that employees’ access to leave
varies widely by industry, by job, by wage, and skill level.
That’s a recipe for an economy
that leaves too many people behind and undermines sound business practices. The
effects ripple throughout our communities. Businesses suffer when employees
have low morale and reduced productivity due to changes at home, such as having
a baby or a sick loved one to care for. And I see the impact in the classroom,
when students express concern that workplace challenges will thwart their
family and career ambitions. In a longitudinal study of Wharton’s graduating
classes of 1992 and 2012, we found the percentage of those planning to have or
adopt children fell from 79 to 42% over two decades. This baby bust was driven
in part by fears of not having sufficient support to make life as a parent
work.
In states, such as California,
Connecticut, and New Jersey, where paid leave policies have already been
implemented, we have ample evidence that they make good business sense while
providing workers with the support they need to manage work and family. Paid
leave reduces turnover and increases employee loyalty, which results in cost
savings for businesses. It also enables employees to devote more time and
attention to their home lives, which gives them a greater sense of control and
increases efficiency, engagement and productivity.
Fortunately, some leading
businesses recognize these benefits. Most recently, tech companies like
Microsoft and Adobe have expanded their leave policies in an effort to attract
and retain top talent, and the experiences of companies like Google and Ernst
& Young have shown that this works. Unfortunately, we cannot count on all
businesses in all industries to be able (or willing) to make similar changes.
That is why federal legislation is critical.
The FAMILY Act would create a
national paid-leave-policy floor for all businesses, no matter their profit
margin. It employs a familiar, tested insurance pool framework and spreads the
cost of leave in a way that is affordable and responsible. Data from other
countries and states that have adopted similar programs, along with research
many colleagues and I have conducted, demonstrate that it is a sound and smart
approach.
Those who have signed our letter
in support of this legislation include some of the most distinguished business
faculty from nearly 90 schools, including the country’s most prestigious
institutions. We hope that this adds to the tremendous momentum in support of
paid leave, and to the efforts of advocacy groups like the National Partnership
for Women & Families, which is leading the charge for the FAMILY Act. In
this moment of opportunity, the nation must adopt a policy that is built for
the populations, workforces, and businesses of today and tomorrow.
________________________________________
Stewart D. Friedman is the
Practice Professor of Management at the Wharton School. The former head of Ford
Motor’s Leadership Development Center, he is the author of Leading the Life You
Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life, Baby Bust: New Choices for Men and
Women in Work and Family, and Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a
Richer Life. For more, visit www.totalleadership.org, find him on Twitter
@StewFriedman, or onLinkedIn.
IF INDUSTRY WON’T ACT RESPONSIBLE, THEN IMPOSE A
SUGAR TAX
by Colin Sallee
With a laundry list of concerns
on the intake of sugary drinks as well as a shortage in revenue, Chicago has
begun an effort to severely tax these products.
While there is a three percent
tax on sugary beverages in Cook County, the new city tax, proposed by Ald.
George Cardenas (12th Ward), would be a bit heavier handed.
The proposed increase is about a
penny per ounce, or just about a 17 percent total tax on drinks with 10 grams
or more of added artificial sugar. Only 12 oz. drinks would qualify. Drinks
with artificially added sugar have been flagged as a major American health
issue, leading to countless diseases such as diabetes, coronary infections,
obesity and overall poor health.
“We’re trying to make the healthy
choice the default choice,” said Karen Larimer, DePaul professor and soon-to-be
the President of the American Heart Association’s Chicago branch.
“We’re not saying get rid of
them, people can still drink their charged-up drinks if they chose. But based
on what we know they do to the human body, we believe they’ve earned a little
bit of tax.”
Larimer, a Vanderbilt graduate
and a professor of Health Promotions for Families and Communities gave her testimony
last week during a committee meeting with City Council that gave this tax
traction.
She cited the education of the
city’s youth as the motivation she needed to get behind the tax. Informing them
of the harms of these drinks, and finding ways to provide alternatives.
Creating better habits, and giving young people the means to make conscious
health decisions.
According to the Center of
Disease Control, about 70 percent of college students drink a sugar sweetened
beverage every day.
“I drink 4 to 5 Sprites a week,”
sophomore David Key, who lives in Lincoln Park said. “I’ve got a 12-pack at
home actually. I like to think I’m a pretty fit guy, and I know there’s a ton
of garbage in these things. It’s just my go to drink.”
When asked if he’ll spend an extra
few bucks for that same 12 pack of Sprite if the tax was implemented, Key gave
it some thought. That 12 pack of Sprite would increase more than $2 with this
tax, turning that $6 12 pack in an $8 one.
“I’m not so sure, I may be too
far gone, but who knows. I feel like people unconsciously pay more for certain
things just because they don’t see whatever tax is on it, you know how it is,
man. Everything is taxed.”
A unique factor to the sugar
sweetened tax is that it will be displayed on each product that is taxed. The
retail number will be visible, and if the beverage exceeds the artificially
sweetened limit (which is typically an excess amount of high fructose corn
syrup) the tax will be applied and the actual price will be on the product for
consumers to read. The mental impact of seeing the price go up that much is
what those behind the tax are hoping for. Making logical, financial based
decisions simply based on what price they see will more than likely be the
difference for many college students who may already be strapped for cash.
Mainstream media has tabbed the
bill as lousy, and don’t think it has much chance. The Chicago Tribune headline
following the council meeting read, “Chicago soda tax fizzles out at City
Hall.”
Some students believe the contrary.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if this
tax picks up some real support,” business major and DePaul junior Sarah Walden
said.
“This area is already so good
when it comes forward thinking and public health. (E-cigarettes) are being
banned in plenty of places, tobacco is so expensive, and you can’t buy
cigarettes anywhere inside a public building. These road blocks in convenience
have had an impact.”
In 2008, 21 percent of adults
smoked cigarettes in Illinois. Since then, a series of taxes have seen the
price spike to what it is now, roughly $13 a pack in Cook County. Over that
span, the number of adults who smoke has dropped almost six percent, according
to the Tobacco Burden study performed by the Illinois Department of Public
Health.
These kind of results are what
the American Heart Association, and millions of other health advocates, want to
see with the sugar sweetened beverage tax.
“It really is about exposing the
younger generations to what are currently the alternatives,” Dr. Larimer
emphasized. “DePaul is an extremely conscious University. It won’t happen
overnight, but the tide will begin to shift if it hasn’t started already.”
Excerpt from my book “On the
Waterfront: The Making of a Great American Film”
THE HOOK
SPRING 1951
“By whatever
means it is accomplished, the prime business of a play, a story, is to arouse
the passions of its audience so that by the route of passion may be opened up
new relationships between a man and men, and between men and Man. Drama is akin
to the other inventions of man in that it ought to help us to know more, and
not merely to spend our feelings.” Arthur Miller
He
was a causality of his time and a victim by his own design and it all happened
in less than 48 minutes. It also happened at the worst possible time. It always
does. Elia Kazan, an artist who had
always sought greatness and approval, was riding higher than he had ever
dreamed he could. His screen production of "A Streetcar Named Desire"
and his Broadway presentation of "All My Sons" and "Death of a
Salesman" had earned him a fortune, given him his much sought after fame
and made him a living show business legend.
Then it all collapsed around him. He named
names before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, effectively telling
the committee what it already knew; the names of writers, director, producers
in Hollywood who were members of the Communist Party or who had expressed
sympathy with the Communist view.
Until
the day he died, he claimed that this one small act, in a long and glorious
career, had brought him peace of mind but the truth is, that 48 minutes before
an ancient government microphone in a dimly lit room, would torment him for the
rest of his days. Kazan would remain a man haunted by the ghosts and conflicts
of his past that were as real as they imagined, a man who used those images to
create his greatest work, On The Waterfront, a masterpiece film based in an
iconoclastic political essay whose artistic message is still being heard, still
being debated, still evoking emotions and passions.
****
Elia Kazan was born Elia (pronounced
Ee-lee-yah) Kazanjoglous on September 7, 1909, in Constantinople, one of four
sons of George Kazanjoglous and Athena Sismanoglou, both Anatolian Greeks whose
roots reached back for centuries to the village of Kayseri in rural Turkey. In 1913,
when Elia was four years old, the family immigrated to the US and settled in
New York City, where his father became a rug merchant working under his older
brother who had already Americanized himself from Avraam-Elia Kazanjioglou to
A.E. Kazan, otherwise known simply as Joe Kazan.
Together
the brothers eventually founded the prestigious George Kazan Inc. Oriental Rugs
& Carpets, the preeminent provider of imported carpets to New York’s
wealthy set. During the summers, Elia
worked in the store, rolling out carpets for customers and other menial
tasks. Otherwise, he attended local
public schools in New York City and later in suburban New Rochelle, N.Y., without
distinction.
Elia
grew to fear his, father, a base character with a brutal side who nicknamed his
shy and intelligent son “Mister. Good for nothing.”1 Despite his constant
badgering of his son, the father expected that after high school, Elia would
enter the family’s continually prosperous carpet business. When his wife told
him husband that their son had decided to attend Williams College in
Massachusetts, a decision the father had not been a part of,
his
response was to punch her in the mouth, knocking her to the floor. It was moments like that and his endless
sarcasm that scalded his son like acid.
After
Elia graduated from college and told his father that he was entering the Yale
Drama School to study acting, his father’s response was 'Didn't you look in the
mirror?’ 2 All of the child’s moral support came from
his mother who encouraged her son’s creative side with or without her husband’s
approval. Elia would willfully carry those resentments and memories with him
for the rest of his life, setting the stage in his mind’s eye forever.
A
demanding and oppressive father and a troubled son would make appearances in
several of his films, including Waterfront, where Johnny Friendly is the
protagonist’s brutal and manipulative father by proxy. Conversely, each of his
films would present an understanding and encouraging female tossed into the
roughhewn shadow of a crude and remorseless man or surroundings.
HERE IS AN
EXCEPT FROM MY BOOK "THE BOOK OF AMERICAN-JEWISH GANGSTERS"
(Max Zellner is a pen name, it
was my grandfather's born name. During World War 1 he changed it to the less
German sounding Paul Selner)
Dalitz,
Morris Barney: Casino owner. AKA Moe. Born December 24, 1899
Boston, Massachusetts. Raised in Michigan. Died August. 31, 1989. The son of
Barney Dalitz a gambler and prosperous industrial laundry business operator in
Ann Arbor, Dalitz used his family trucks to bring thousands of cases of whisky
across the Canadian border and into the US. His gang, at first it was actually
more of collection of vaguely competent young men hoping to pass as gangsters,
was called the Mayfield Road Boys. Mayfield Road being the point where Cleveland
ended at the shores of Lake Erie. The gang operated between Cleveland, Detroit,
and Ann Arbor. It was during this time that Dalitz met a very young Jimmy
Hoffa, also from Michigan. Hoffa had tried (but failed) to unionize Dalitz’s
laundry drivers
He served in the US Army in World War 2,
achieving the rank of Captain. Pressure from the Kefauver hearings and requests
by the Mafia moved Dalitz to Las Vegas, although he had been operating there,
as a consultant of sorts, to the Mafia, since the 1940s. The move was simply a
formality.
He took over construction of the troubled
Desert Inn Casino from builder Wilbur Clark who had run out money. Dalitz with
his partners, the ethically challenged Sam Tucker and Morris Kleinman, Dalitz
opened the hotel in 1950. In 1954, he took over the Stardust Hotel after the
questionable sudden death of its builder, LA gangster Tony Cornero
Unlike virtually everyone around him,
muscle and violence were not the way Dalitz handled problems. Crime writer Hank
Messick said "The reaction of Dalitz to a threat was typical of the man
and of his methods. Even in those pioneering days of rum running across Lake
Erie, Dalitz and his associates used others to do the dirty work. Caution, not
fear, was the basis of their method of operation. Even as young men, they
understood the value of insulation, of remaining apart from physical violence.
A fellow with brains and cash could always find a man with muscle to man the
'rummies,' as the boats carrying illicit booze were known. If necessary, they
could also do a little killing."
That attitude “Think first, shoot later”
permeated across Las Vegas where, by general agreement of the mobs, violence
could happen, but it was rare. Yet it was Dalitz, in his capacity as advisor to
the National Mafia Commission on all things Las Vegas, who pushed for Bugsy
Siegel’s death. According to Chicago’s capo, Murray Humphreys, who had hired
Dalitz to consult on Vegas, Dalitz advocated Siegel’s murder because Bugsy
would never stand for being pushed out of Nevada. He would simply come back
looking for a war.
His wealth was estimated to be in the area
of $100 million and most of that was made through shrewd real estate investment
deal in California and investments in the television entertainment industry.
Despite his millions, or maybe because of
his millions, Dalitz could be seen around Vegas driving a yellow Volkswagen
Beatle and wearing clothes that most suspected were purchased at low-end retail
outlets. He was expressly proud of his Jewish background and contributed
liberally to Jewish causes (He also gave millions to the University of Nevada,
Las Vegas)
Dalitz continued to be a major power in
Las Vegas and Nevada well after he retired. He died of natural causes, rare for
an originator of the Las Vegas dream and is one of the few legendary figures of
organized crime of whom it can be correctly written was never convicted of a
major crime.
Drapkin,
Sam:
Born 1909 Died August 11 1965. Drapkin
was a member of the Purple gang who survived nine gunshot wounds from a machine
gun attacked in July of 1927. In February of 1932, he not only survived another
gunshot wound, he also survived a one-way-ride by his competitors.
Excerpt from my book "When
Capone’s Mob Murdered Touhy.”
WAR
"It was a war, chiefly,
between the Irish and the Italians. I'm Irish and I'd come into my office in
the morning after another shoot-out and I would say to my co-worker, who was Italian,
'Well that's one to my side' and the next day he would come and say 'well, it's
leveled Jim, we chalked one up on our side last night.' It was awful really,
they were all such young men."-James
Doherty, crime reporter for the Chicago Tribune
By 1930, Roger Touhy and Matt Kolb were
millionaires. Their small, but profitable beer and gambling empire stretched
from midtown Chicago to as far north as St. Paul, Minnesota. They owned dozens
of speakeasies, roadside casinos, handbook parlors, three large breweries, and
an enormous fleet of trucks. Roger saw repeal approaching and invested his
earnings in a dry cleaning business with Kolb's brother, commercial real
estate, a well digging company and a winter place for himself in Florida.
Unlike Matt Kolb or even his own brothers, Roger intended to be completely
legitimate by 1933. Then he and Clara and their boys would sell everything and
move west to Colorado, although Clara was holding out for Florida.
However, if Touhy was ready for prohibition
to end, the mob wasn't. The depression hurt more and more of the mob's
traditional enterprises like prostitution and gambling. A1 Capone decided to
take over Chicago's labor racket business and gain control of the Teamsters
International strike fund, worth an estimated $150,000,000 with another
$10,000,000 a year flowing into its coffers from membership dues.
Leading Capone's assault was George
"Red" Barker, a west side Irishman and former bookkeeper. Working
under Barker as his assistant was the up and coming Murray Humpreys, a Welshman
who had strong-armed his way into at least twenty-six Teamster locals by then.
When the decade of the 1930s opened, George Red Barker was, as one Chicago cop
put it, "riding on top of the world." Barker all but controlled the
Chicago Teamsters and was reported to be earning $200,000 a year as a result.
Before he took to a life of crime, Barker
had been an honest bookkeeper. He was literate, devouring every union
newsletter and newspaper he could find from anywhere in the country, and paid
for information on locals as well. Barker would get a copy of the financials
and study them. If the union had potential, Barker recommended the takeover to
Ralph Capone and Frank Nitti who talked it over with A1 Capone. If Capone
agreed-and he almost always did-Barker and his boys would go after the union.
In early 1931, Capone urged Barker to go
after the coal teamsters.
Barker approached James "Lefty"
Lynch, a semi- honest thug who owned the Coal Teamsters Local 704, which
delivered fuel to the entire downtown district where every office building
depended upon the local for fuel to warm its buildings against the brutal
Chicago winters. Barker told Lynch that Capone expected him to turn over half
of the control of his union as well as his seat on the prestigious and
important Joint Teamsters Council. In exchange, Barker offered Lynch
protection. On the up side, Barker told Lynch, Capone intended to double the
union's membership and as a result Lynch's income would double as well.
Lynch sat through Barker's speech and then
threw him out of his office. It was his union and he wasn't going to give it up
to Capone or anyone else.
Capone waited.
Later in the month, Lynch went to his summer
home on Brown Lake outside Burlington, Wisconsin. His family was preparing a
barbecue and the members were seated around a long picnic table when Danny
Stanton and Klondike O'Donnell, two of the meanest Capone hoods in Chicago,
drove into the yard. They climbed out of the car slowly. They were in no hurry.
There were no cops or witnesses around for miles. They were armed with
shotguns, pistols and rifles. Stanton walked over to Lynch and said, 'The Big
Fellow back in Chicago sends this message: you just retired from Local 704.
From this moment on, you stay away from the union hall. You stay away from the
office. You stay away from the Joint Council. You understand?"
Lynch nodded his head and Klondike added,
'Well just so's you don't forget what was said...." and pulled out his
pistol and shot Lynch through both of his legs while his wife and children
looked on in horror. Lynch fell to the ground, groaning in agony. Stanton bent
over Lynch to make sure he was alive and said 'You got balls; I'll give you
that." He stood up and turned to Lynch's daughter and said "get him
to a doctor and he'll be alright."
At the next meeting of the Joint Council,
Red Barker and Murray Humpreys appeared at the door with a dozen heavily armed
Capone men.
Barker, carrying a baseball bat, stood in
the center of the room and asked "Which one is Lefty Lynch's chair?"
Somebody pointed to a large leather chair in the middle of the room and Barker
sat there. He looked around the room and announced that he was now running the
Coal Teamsters Chauffeurs and Helpers Union Local 704 and that everything would
remain just the way Lynch had left it. The only difference was that the entire
treasury was turned over to Capone except for $1,000 which was left to cover
administrative payrolls.
After that, Barker went to the fuel dealers
in the district and informed them that they were only hiring union members and
that they were giving all of their drivers a massive pay raise or else Capone
would see to it that not a lump of coal was delivered downtown.
The dealers had no choice but to agree and
passed the cost along to the real estate developers who consequently raised the
price of office space in the area. Capone kept Lynch on the payroll to avoid a
revolt in the ranks. However, Lynch never appeared at another union function.
As a reward, Capone gave Barker control over
the ushers' union with orders to exploit it to its full potential. Barker sent
word to every theater owner in the city that they were to use his ushers for
every political and sporting event, indoor or outdoor. He
said
they would have to pay for "crowd control," a service only his union
could provide, at a rate of $10 per usher.
Movie theaters avoided the hike by paying
off Barker in cash. Five dollars per usher was less expensive for them. Within
weeks Barker was being paid off by every strip show, opera, ballet, symphony,
prize fight and ball game held in the city. He was collecting a fortune until
one prize fight promoter named Walter George decided to hold out.
Barker waited until the promoter had sold out
the entire Coliseum on South Wabash Avenue for a major prize fight. Then, just
before the fight was to begin, a half dozen cabs pulled up to the coliseum and
let out building inspectors, fire marshals, electrical inspectors, plumbing
inspectors and health inspectors, all led by Red Barker. Within minutes after
entering the building the inspectors declared that the water was unhealthy to
drink and ordered it turned off. The hot dog, beer and soda concessions were
shut down by the fire marshal and the electrical inspector said the wiring was
faulty and ordered the stadium lights shut off. During the delay, the crowd
became violent. George turned to Barker and said "All right, how much you
bastard?"
Barker answered that his price was up to $20
per usher and that the minimum number of ushers needed for the night was 120.
Barker was paid and the fight went on.
Roger Touhy and Matt Kolb had their own
plans for Chicago's labor unions. Prohibition, gambling and the ability to
avoid big political payoffs and long drawn out beer wars had made them rich. By
1932, they had the money, and the firepower to take over the entire Chicago
Teamsters organization without having to split any of it with Capone.
Unlike Capone, they didn't need to terrorize
their way into each local union before reaching the Teamsters International
office. They had a direct and trusted contact in the International office with
Edward Chicken McFadden, an old time labor terrorist with deep contacts into
the Teamsters International leadership.
McFadden picked up the name Chicken when he
organized a shakedown operation known as the Kosher Chicken Pluckers Union. He
had an arrest record dating back to 1901 that included intent to rob, police
impersonation and labor slugging. He had been a business partner with a labor
mobster named "Big Tim" Lynch, controlling the Chauffeurs and
Teamsters Union together, until Capone had Lynch killed. Capone took over the
union and chased McFadden and his contacts into the waiting arms of Roger and Tommy
Touhy. In early 1932, when Capone started his major push against the unions, it
was McFadden who set up a meeting between the Touhys and Patty Burrell, the
Teamsters International Vice President. Burrell called a meeting of all the
locals threatened by the syndicate and gave them a choice; they could stand
alone against Capone and lose their unions and probably their lives, or they
could band together and move their operations into Touhy's camp.
Most of the bosses already knew Roger and
decided he was the lesser of the two evils. They pitched into a $75,000
protection fund that was handed over to Tommy Touhy. In exchange, the union
bosses were allowed to keep their locals, and the treasuries that came with
them, and live under the Touhys' protection.
BLOGLAPEDIA’S BLOGS
ARCHITECTURE
Architecture
for the blog of it
http://architecturefortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
THE ARTS
Art
for the Blog of It
http://artfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
Art
for the Pop of it
http://artforthepopofit.blogspot.com/
Photography
for the blog of it
http://photographyfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
Music
for the Blog of it
http://musicfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
Sculpture
this and Sculpture that
http://sculpturethisandsculpturethat.blogspot.com/
The
art of War (Propaganda art through the ages)
http://theartofwarcleverhuh.blogspot.com/
Album
Art (Photographic arts)
http://albumartsocheesyitsgood.blogspot.com/
Pulp
Fiction Trash (The art of Pulp Fiction covers)
http://pulpfictiontrash.blogspot.com/
Admit
it, you want to Read this Book (The art of Pulp Fiction covers)
http://goaheadadmitityouwanttoread.blogspot.com/
FILM
The
Godfather Trilogy BlogSpot
http://thegodfathertrilogyblogspot.blogspot.com/
On
the Waterfront: The Making of a great American Film
http://onthewaterfrontthefilm.blogspot.com/
FOOD
Absolutely
blogalicious
http://absolutelyblogalicious.blogspot.com/
The
Wee Book of Irish Recipes (Book support site)
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/
Good
chowda (New England foods)
http://goodchowda.blogspot.com/
Old
New England Recipes (Book support site)
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com/
And I
Love Clams (New England foods)
http://andiloveclams.blogspot.com/
In
Praise of the Rhode Island Wiener (New England foods)
http://inpraiseoftherhodeislandwiener.blogspot.com/
Wicked
Cool New England Recipes (New England foods)
http://whickedcoolnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
Old
New England Recipes (New England foods)
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
FOSTER CARE
Foster Care new and Updates
Aging out of the system
Murder, Death and Abuse in the
Foster Care system
Angel and Saints in the Foster
Care System
The Foster Children’s Blogs
Foster Care Legislation
The Foster Children’s Bill of
Right
Foster Kids own Story
The Adventures of Foster Kid.
HEALTH
Me
vs. Diabetes (Diabetes education site)
http://mevsdiabetes-bloglapedia.blogspot.com/
HISTORY
The
Quotable Helen Keller
http://thequotablehelenkeller.blogspot.com/
Teddy
Roosevelt's Letters to his children (Book support site)
http://teddyrooseveltsletterstohischildren.blogspot.com/
The
Quotable Machiavelli (Book support site)
http://thequotablemachiavelli.blogspot.com/
HUMOR
Whatever
you do, don't laugh
http://whateveryoudodontlaugh.blogspot.com/
The
Quotable Grouch Marx
http://thequotablegrouchmarx.blogspot.com/
IRISH-AMERICANA
A Big
Blog of Irish Literature
http://abigblogofirishliterature.blogspot.com/
The
Wee Blog of Irish Jokes (Book support blog)
http://theweeblogofirishjokes.blogspot.com/
The
Wee Blog of Irish Recipes
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/
The
Irish American Gangster
http://irishamericangangsters.blogspot.com
The
Irish in their Own Words
http://theirishintheirownwords.blogspot.com/
When
Washington Was Irish
http://whenwashingtonwasirish.blogspot.com/
The
Wee Book of Irish Recipes (Book support site)
http://theweeblogofirishrecipes.blogspot.com/
LITERATURE
Following
Fitzgerald
http://followingfitzgerald.blogspot.com/
Shakespeare
http://shakespeareinamericanenglish.blogspot.com/
The
Blogable Robert Frost
http://theblogablerobertfrost.blogspot.com/
Charles
Dickens
http://charlesdickensfan.blogspot.com/
The
Beat Poets of the Forever Generation
http://thebeatspoetsoftheforevergenera.blogspot.com/
Holden
Caulfield Blog Spot
http://holdencaulfieldblogspot.blogspot.com/
The
Quotable Oscar Wilde
http://thequotableoscarwilde.blogspot.com/
NEW ENGLAND BLOGS
The
Quotable Thoreau
http://thequotablethenrydavidthoreau.blogspot.com/
Old
New England Recipes
http://oldnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
Wicked
Cool New England Recipes
http://whickedcoolnewenglandrecipes.blogspot.com
Emerson
http://emersonsaidit.blogspot.com/
The
New England Mafia
http://thenewenglandmafia.blogspot.com/
And I
Love Clams
http://andiloveclams.blogspot.com/
In
Praise of the Rhode Island Wiener
http://inpraiseoftherhodeislandwiener.blogspot.com/
Watch
Hill
http://watchhillwesterly.blogspot.com/
York
Beach
http://yorkbeachfortheblogofit.blogspot.com/
The
Connecticut History Blog
http://connecticuthistory.blogspot.com/
The
Connecticut Irish
http://theconnecticutirish.blogspot.com/
Good
chowda
http://goodchowda.blogspot.com/
NOSTALGIA
God,
How I hated the 70s
http://godhowihatedthe70s.blogspot.com/
Child
of the Sixties Forever
http://childofthesixtiesforeverandever.blogspot.com/
The
Kennedy’s in the 60’s
http://thekennedysinthe60s.blogspot.com/
Music
of the Sixties Forever
http://musicofthesixtiesforever.blogspot.com/
Elvis
and Nixon at the White House (Book support site)
http://elvisandnixonatthewhitehouse.blogspot.com/
Beatles
Fan Forever
http://beatlesfanforever.blogspot.com/
Year
One, 1955
http://yearone1955.blogspot.com/
Robert
Kennedy in His Own Words
The
1980s were fun
http://the1980swereokayactually.blogspot.com/
The
1990s. The last decade.
http://1990sthelastdecade.blogspot.com/
ORGANIZED CRIME
The
Russian Mafia
http://russianmafiagangster.blogspot.com/
The
American Jewish Gangster
http://theamericanjewishgangster.blogspot.com/
The
Mob in Hollywood
http://themobinhollywood.blogspot.com/
We
Only Kill Each Other
http://weonlykilleachother.blogspot.com/
Early
Gangsters of New York City
http://earlygangstersofnewyorkcity.blogspot.com/
Al
Capone: Biography of a self-made Man
http://alcaponethebiographyofaselfmademan.blogspot.com/
The
Life and World of Al Capone
http://thelifeandworldofalcapone.blogspot.com/
The
Salerno Report
http://salernoreportmafiaandurderjohnkennedy.blogspot.com/
Guns
and Glamour
http://gunsandglamourthechicagomobahistory.blogspot.com/
The
St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
http://thesaintvalentinesdaymassacre.blogspot.com/
Mob
Testimony
http://mobtestimony.blogspot.com/
Recipes
we would Die For
http://recipeswewoulddiefor.blogspot.com/
The
Prohibition in Pictures
http://theprohibitioninpictures.blogspot.com/
The
Mob in Pictures
http://themobinpictures.blogspot.com/
The
Mob in Vegas
http://themobinvegasinpictures.blogspot.com/
The
Irish American Gangster
http://irishamericangangsters.blogspot.com
Roger
Touhy Gangster
http://rogertouhygangsters.blogspot.com/
Chicago’s
Mob Bosses
http://chicagosmobbossesfromaccardoto.blogspot.com/
Chicago
Gang Land: It Happened Here
http://chicagoganglandithappenedhere.blogspot.com/
Whacked:
One Hundred years of Murder in Gangland
http://whackedonehundredyearsmurderand.blogspot.com/
The
Mob Across America
http://themobacrossamerica.blogspot.com/
Mob
Cops, Lawyers and Front Men
http://mobcopslawyersandinformantsand.blogspot.com/
Shooting
the Mob: Dutch Schultz
http://shootingthemobdutchschultz.blogspot.com/
Bugsy&
His Flamingo: The Testimony of Virginia Hill
http://bugsyandvirginiahill.blogspot.com/
After
Valachi. Hearings before the US Senate on Organized Crime
http://aftervalachi.blogspot.com/
Mob
Buster: Report of Special Agent Virgil Peterson to the Kefauver Committee (Book
support site)
http://virgilpetersonmobbuster.blogspot.com/
The
US Government’s Timeline of Organized Crime (Book support site)
http://timelineoforganizedcrime.blogspot.com/
The
Kefauver Organized Crime Hearings (Book support site)
http://thekefauverorganizedcrimehearings.blogspot.com/
Joe
Valachi's testimony on the Mafia (Book support site)
http://joevalachistestimonyonthemafia.blogspot.com/
Mobsters
in the News
http://mobstersinthenews.blogspot.com/
Shooting
the Mob: Dead Mobsters (Book support site)
http://deadmobsters.blogspot.com/
The
Stolen Years Full Text (Roger Touhy)
http://thestolenyearsfulltext.blogspot.com/
Mobsters
in Black and White
http://mobstersinblackandwhite.blogspot.com/
Mafia
Gangsters, Wiseguys and Goodfellas
http://mafiagangsterswiseguysandgoodfellas.blogspot.com/
Whacked:
One Hundred Years of Murder and Mayhem in the Chicago Mob (Book support site)
http://whackedonehundredyearsmurderand.blogspot.com/
Gangland
Gaslight: The Killing of Rosy Rosenthal (Book support site)
http://ganglandgaslightrosyrosenthal.blogspot.com/
The
Best of the Mob Files Series (Book support site)
http://thebestofthemobfilesseries.blogspot.com/
PHILOSOPHY
It’s
All Greek Mythology to me
http://itsallgreekmythologytome.blogspot.com/
PSYCHOLOGY
Psychologically
Relevant
http://psychologicallyrelevant.blogspot.com/
SNOBBERY
The
Rarifieid Tribe
http://therarifiedtribe.blogspot.com/
Perfect
Behavior
http://perfectbehavior.blogspot.com/
TRAVEL
The
Upscale Traveler
http://theupscaletraveler.blogspot.com/
TRIVIA
The
Mish Mosh Blog
http://theupscaletraveler.blogspot.com/
WASHINGTON DC
DC
Behind the Monuments
http://dcbehindthemonuments.blogspot.com/
Washington
Oddities
http://washingtonoddities.blogspot.com/
When
Washington Was Irish
http://whenwashingtonwasirish.blogspot.com/
FROM LLR BOOKS. COM
Litchfield Literary Books. A really small company
run by writers.
AMERICAN HISTORY
The Day
Nixon Met Elvis
Paperback 46 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Day-Nixon-Met-elvis/
Theodore
Roosevelt: Letters to his Children. 1903-1918
Paperback 194 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Theodore-Roosevelt-Letters-Children-1903-1918/dp/
THE ANCIENT GREEKS AND CIVILIZATIONS
The Works
of Horace
Paperback 174 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Works-Horace-Richard-Willoughby/
The
Quotable Greeks
Paperback 234 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Greeks-Richard-W-Willoughby
The
Quotable Epictetus
Paperback 142 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Epictetus-Golden-Sayings
Quo
Vadis: A narrative of the time of Nero
Paperback 420 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quo-Vadis-Narrative-Time-Nero
CHILDRENS
BOOKS
The
Porchless Pumpkin: A Halloween Story for Children
A Halloween play for young children. By consent of the author,
this play may be performed, at no charge, by educational institutions,
neighborhood organizations and other not-for-profit-organizations.
A fun story with a moral
“I believe that Denny O'Day is an American treasure and this
little book proves it. Jack is a pumpkin who happens to be very small, by
pumpkins standards and as a result he goes unbought in the pumpkin patch on
Halloween eve, but at the last moment he is given his chance to prove that just
because you're small doesn't mean you can't be brave. Here is the point that I
found so wonderful, the book stresses that while size doesn't matter when it
comes to courage...ITS OKAY TO BE SCARED....as well. I think children need to
hear that, that's its okay to be unsure because life is a ongoing lesson isn't
it?”
Paperback: 42 pages
http://www.amazon.com/OLANTERN-PORCHLESS-PUMPKIN-Halloween-Children
BOOKS
ON FOSTER CARE
It's Not
All Right to be a Foster Kid....no matter what they tell you: Tweet the books
contents
Paperback 94 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Right-Foster-Kid-no-matter-what
From the Author
I spent my childhood, from age seven through seventeen, in
foster care. Over the course of those
ten years, many decent, well-meaning, and concerned people told me, "It's
okay to be foster kid."
In saying that, those very good people meant to encourage me,
and I appreciated their kindness then, and all these many decades later, I
still appreciate their good intentions. But as I was tossed around the foster
care system, it began to dawn on me that they were wrong. It was not all right to be a foster kid.
During my time in the system, I was bounced every eighteen
months from three foster homes to an orphanage to a boy's school and to a group
home before I left on my own accord at age seventeen.
In the course of my stay in foster care, I was severely beaten
in two homes by my "care givers" and separated from my four siblings
who were also in care, sometimes only blocks away from where I was living.
I left the system rather than to wait to age out, although the
effects of leaving the system without any family, means, or safety net of any
kind, were the same as if I had aged out. I lived in poverty for the first part
of my life, dropped out of high school, and had continuous problems with the
law.
Today, almost nothing
about foster care has changed. Exactly
what happened to me is happening to some other child, somewhere in America,
right now. The system, corrupt, bloated,
and inefficient, goes on, unchanging and secretive.
Something has gone wrong in a system that was originally a
compassionate social policy built to improve lives but is now a definitive
cause in ruining lives. Due to gross
negligence, mismanagement, apathy, and greed, mostly what the foster care
system builds are dangerous consequences. Truly, foster care has become our
epic national disgrace and a nightmare for those of us who have lived through
it.
Yet there is a suspicion among some Americans that foster care
costs too much, undermines the work ethic, and is at odds with a satisfying
life. Others see foster care as a part
of the welfare system, as legal plunder of the public treasuries.
None of that is true;
in fact, all that sort of thinking does is to blame the victims. There is not a single child in the system who
wants to be there or asked to be there.
Foster kids are in foster care because they had nowhere else to go. It's that simple. And believe me, if those kids could get out
of the system and be reunited with their parents and lead normal, healthy
lives, they would. And if foster care is a sort of legal plunder of the public
treasuries, it's not the kids in the system who are doing the plundering.
We need to end this
needless suffering. We need to end it
because it is morally and ethically wrong and because the generations to come
will not judge us on the might of our armed forces or our technological
advancements or on our fabulous wealth.
Rather, they will judge
us, I am certain, on our compassion for those who are friendless, on our
decency to those who have nothing and on our efforts, successful or not, to
make our nation and our world a better place.
And if we cannot accomplish those things in the short time allotted to
us, then let them say of us "at least they tried."
You can change the tragedy of foster care and here's how to do
it. We have created this book so that
almost all of it can be tweeted out by you to the world. You have the power to improve the lives of
those in our society who are least able to defend themselves. All you need is the will to do it.
If the American people,
as good, decent and generous as they are, knew what was going on in foster
care, in their name and with their money, they would stop it. But, generally speaking, although the public
has a vague notion that foster care is a mess, they don't have the complete
picture. They are not aware of the human, economic and social cost that the
mismanagement of the foster care system puts on our nation.
By tweeting the facts laid out in this work, you can help to
change all of that. You can make a
difference. You can change things for
the better.
We can always change the future for a foster kid; to make it
better ...you have the power to do that. Speak up (or tweet out) because it's your
country. Don't depend on the "The
other guy" to speak up for these kids, because you are the other guy.
We cannot build a future for foster children, but we can build
foster children for the future and the time to start that change is today.
No time to
say Goodbye: Memoirs of a life in foster
Paperbook 440 Books
http://www.amazon.com/No-Time-Say-Goodbye-Memoir
BOOKS ABOUT FILM
On the
Waterfront: The Making of a Great American Film
Paperback: 416 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Waterfront-Making-Great-American-Film/
BOOKS ABOUT GHOSTS AND THE SUPERNATUAL
Scotish
Ghost Stories
Paperback 186 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Scottish-Ghost-Stories-Elliott-ODonell
HUMOR BOOKS
The Book
of funny odd and interesting things people say
Paperback: 278 pages
http://www.amazon.com/book-funny-interesting-things-people
The Wee
Book of Irish Jokes
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Series-Irish-Jokes-ebook
Perfect
Behavior: A guide for Ladies and Gentlemen in all Social Crises
http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Behavior-Ladies-Gentlemen-Social
BOOKS ABOUT THE 1960s
You Don’t
Need a Weatherman. Underground 1969
Paperback 122 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Weatherman-Notes-Weatherman-Underground-1969
Baby
Boomers Guide to the Beatles Songs of the Sixties
Paperback
http://www.amazon.com/Boomers-Guide-Beatles-Songs-Sixties/
Baby
Boomers Guide to Songs of the 1960s
http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Boomers-Guide-Songs-1960s
IRISH- AMERICANA
The
Connecticut Irish
Paper back 140 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Connecticut-Irish-Catherine-F-Connolly
The Wee Book of Irish Jokes
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Series-Irish-Jokes-ebook/
The Wee
Book of Irish Recipes
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wee-Book-Irish-Recipes/
The Wee Book of the American-Irish Gangsters
http://www.amazon.com/The-Wee-Book-Irish-American-Gangsters/
The Wee book of Irish Blessings...
http://www.amazon.com/Series-Blessing-Proverbs-Toasts-ebook/
The Wee
Book of the American Irish in Their Own Words
http://www.amazon.com/Book-American-Irish-Their-Words/
Everything
you need to know about St. Patrick
Paperback 26 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Everything-Need-About-Saint-Patrick
A Reading
Book in Ancient Irish History
Paperback 147pages
http://www.amazon.com/Reading-Book-Ancient-Irish-History
The Book
of Things Irish
http://www.amazon.com/Book-Things-Irish-William-Tuohy/
Poets and
Dreamer; Stories translated from the Irish
Paperback 158 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Poets-Dreamers-Stories-Translated-Irish/
The
History of the Great Irish Famine: Abridged and Illustrated
Paperback 356 pages
http://www.amazon.com/History-Great-Irish-Famine-Illustrated/
BOOKS ABOUT NEW ENGLAND
The New
England Mafia
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-England-Mafia-ebook/
Wicked
Good New England Recipes
http://www.amazon.com/Wicked-Good-New-England-Recipes/
The
Connecticut Irish
Paper back 140 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Connecticut-Irish-Catherine-F-Connolly
The
Twenty-Fifth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers
Paperback 64 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Twenty-Fifth-Regiment-Connecticut-Volunteers-Rebellion
The Life
of James Mars
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Life-James-Mars-Slave-Connecticut
Stories
of Colonial Connecticut
Paperback 116 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Colonial-Connnecticut-Caroline-Clifford
What they
Say in Old New England
Paperback 194 pages
http://www.amazon.com/What-they-say-New-England/
BOOK ABOUT ORGANIZED CRIME
Chicago
Organized Crime
Chicago-Mob-Bosses
http://www.amazon.com/Chicagos-Mob-Bosses-Accardo-ebook
The Mob
Files: It Happened Here: Places of Note in Chicago gangland 1900-2000
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-1900-2000-ebook
An
Illustrated Chronological History of the Chicago Mob. Time Line 1837-2000
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Chronological-History-Chicago-1837-2000/
Mob
Buster: Report of Special Agent Virgil Peterson to the Kefauver Committee
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Buster-Peterson-Committee-ebook/
The Mob
Files. Guns and Glamour: The Chicago Mob. A History. 1900-2000
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Guns-Glamour-ebook/
Shooting
the Mob: Organized crime in photos. Crime Boss Tony Accardo
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-photos-Accardo/
Shooting
the Mob: Organized Crime in Photos: The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre.
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-Valentines-Massacre
The Life
and World of Al Capone in Photos
http://www.amazon.com/Life-World-Al-Capone
AL
CAPONE: The Biography of a Self-Made Man.: Revised from the 0riginal 1930
edition.Over 200 new photographs
Paperback: 340 pages
http://www.amazon.com/CAPONE-Biography-Self-Made-Over-photographs
Whacked.
One Hundred Years Murder and Mayhem in the Chicago Outfit
Paperback: 172 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Whacked-Hundred-Murder-Mayhem-Chicago/
Las
Vegas Organized Crime
The Mob
in Vegas
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Vegas-ebook
Bugsy
& His Flamingo: The Testimony of Virginia Hill
http://www.amazon.com/Bugsy-His-Flamingo-Testimony-Virginia/
Testimony
by Mobsters Lewis McWillie, Joseph Campisi and Irwin Weiner (The Mob Files
Series)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Kennedy-Assassination-Ruby-Testimony-ebook
Rattling
the Cup on Chicago Crime.
Paperback 264 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Rattling-Cup-Chicago-Crime-Abridged
The Life
and Times of Terrible Tommy O’Connor.
Paperback 94 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Life-Times-Terrible-Tommy-OConnor
The Mob,
Sam Giancana and the overthrow of the Black Policy Racket in Chicago
Paperback 200 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Giancana-ovethrow-Policy-Rackets-Chicago
When
Capone’s Mob Murdered Roger Touhy. In Photos
Paperback 234 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Capones-Murdered-Roger-Touhy-photos
Organized
Crime in Hollywood
The Mob in Hollywood
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Files-Hollywood-ebook/
The Bioff
Scandal
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Bioff-Scandal-Shakedown-Hollywood-Studios
Organized
Crime in New York
Joe Pistone’s war on the mafia
http://www.amazon.com/Joe-Petrosinos-War-Mafia-Files/
Mob
Testimony: Joe Pistone, Michael Scars DiLeonardo, Angelo Lonardo and others
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Testimony-DiLeonardo-testimony-Undercover/
The New
York Mafia: The Origins of the New York Mob
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-York-Mafia-Origins
The New
York Mob: The Bosses
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-York-Mob-Bosses/
Organized
Crime 25 Years after Valachi. Hearings before the US Senate
http://www.amazon.com/Organized-Crime-Valachi-Hearings-ebook
Shooting
the mob: Dutch Schultz
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-Mob-Organized-Photographs-Schultz
Gangland
Gaslight: The Killing of Rosy Rosenthal. (Illustrated)
http://www.amazon.com/Gangland-Gaslight-Killing-Rosenthal-Illustrated/
Early
Street Gangs and Gangsters of New York City
Paperback 382 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Early-Street-Gangs-Gangsters-York
THE RUSSIAN MOBS
The
Russian Mafia in America
http://www.amazon.com/The-Russian-Mafia-America-ebook/
The
Threat of Russian Organzied Crime
Paperback 192 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Threat-Russian-Organized-Crime-photographs-ebook
Organized
Crime/General
Best of
Mob Stories
http://www.amazon.com/Files-Series-Illustrated-Articles-Organized-Crime/
Best of
Mob Stories Part 2
http://www.amazon.com/Series-Illustrated-Articles-Organized-ebook/
Illustrated-Book-Prohibition-Gangsters
http://www.amazon.com/Illustrated-Book-Prohibition-Gangsters-ebook
Mob
Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobsters in Photos
http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-For-Meals-Mobsters-Photos
More Mob
Recipes to Die For. Meals and Mobs
http://www.amazon.com/More-Recipes-Meals-Mobsters-Photos
The New
England Mafia
http://www.amazon.com/The-New-England-Mafia-ebook
Shooting
the mob. Organized crime in photos. Dead Mobsters, Gangsters and Hoods.
http://www.amazon.com/Shooting-mob-Organized-photos-Mobsters-Gangsters/
The
Salerno Report: The Mafia and the Murder of President John F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/The-Salerno-Report-President-ebook/
The
Mob Files: Mob Wars. "We only kill each other"
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-Wars-other/
The Mob
across America
http://www.amazon.com/The-Files-Across-America-ebook/
The US
Government’s Time Line of Organzied Crime 1920-1987
http://www.amazon.com/GOVERNMENTS-ORGANIZED-1920-1987-Illustrated-ebook/
Early
Street Gangs and Gangsters of New York City: 1800-1919. Illustrated
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-1800-1919-Illustrated-Street-ebook/
The Mob
Files: Mob Cops, Lawyers and Informants and Fronts
http://www.amazon.com/The-Mob-Files-Informants-ebook/
Gangster
Quotes: Mobsters in their own words. Illustrated
Paperback: 128 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-Quotes-Mobsters-words-Illustrated/
The Book
of American-Jewish Gangsters: A Pictorial History.
Paperback: 436 pages
http://www.amazon.com/The-Book-American-Jewish-Gangsters-Pictorial/
The Mob
and the Kennedy Assassination
Paperback 414 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Mob-Kennedy-Assassination-Ruby-Testimony-Mobsters
BOOKS ABOUT THE OLD WEST
The Last
Outlaw: The story of Cole Younger, by Himself
Paperback 152 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Last-Outlaw-Story-Younger-Himself
BOOKS ON PHOTOGRAPHY
Chicago:
A photographic essay.
Paperback: 200 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Chicago-Photographic-Essay-William-Thomas
STAGE PLAYS
Boomers
on a train: A ten minute play
Paperback 22 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Boomers-train-ten-minute-Play-ebook
Four
Short Plays
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Short-Plays-William-Tuohy
Four More
Short Plays
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Four-Short-Plays-William-Tuohy/
High and
Goodbye: Everybody gets the Timothy Leary they deserve. A full length play
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/High-Goodbye-Everybody-Timothy-deserve
Cyberdate.
An Everyday Love Story about Everyday People
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Cyberdate-Everyday-Story-People-ebook/
The
Dutchman's Soliloquy: A one Act Play based on the factual last words of
Gangster Dutch Schultz.
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/Dutchmans-Soliloquy-factual-Gangster-Schultz/
Fishbowling
on The Last Words of Dutch Schultz: Or William S. Burroughs intersects with
Dutch Schultz
Print Length: 57 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Fishbowling-Last-Words-Dutch-Schultz-ebook/
American
Shakespeare: August Wilson in his own words. A One Act Play
By John William Tuohy
http://www.amazon.com/American-Shakespeare-August-Wilson-ebook
She
Stoops to Conquer
http://www.amazon.com/She-Stoops-Conquer-Oliver-Goldsmith/
The Seven
Deadly Sins of Gilligan’s Island: A ten minute play
Print Length: 14 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Seven-Deadly-Gilligans-Island-minute-ebook/
BOOKS ABOUT VIRGINIA
OUT OF
CONTROL: An Informal History of the Fairfax County Police
http://www.amazon.com/Control-Informal-History-Fairfax-Police/
McLean
Virginia. A short informal history
http://www.amazon.com/McLean-Virginia-Short-Informal-History/
THE QUOTABLE SERIES
The
Quotable Emerson: Life lessons from the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Over 300
quotes
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Emerson-lessons-quotes
The
Quotable John F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-John-F-Kennedy/
The
Quotable Oscar Wilde
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Oscar-Wilde-lessons/
The
Quotable Machiavelli
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Machiavelli-Richard-Thayer/
The
Quotable Confucius: Life Lesson from the Chinese Master
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Confucius-Lesson-Chinese/
The
Quotable Henry David Thoreau
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Henry-Thoreau-Quotables-ebook
The
Quotable Robert F. Kennedy
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Robert-F-Kennedy-Illustrated/
The
Quotable Writer: Writers on the Writers Life
http://www.amazon.com/The-Quotable-Writer-Quotables-ebook
The words
of Walt Whitman: An American Poet
Paperback: 162 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Words-Walt-Whitman-American-Poet
Gangster
Quotes: Mobsters in their own words. Illustrated
Paperback: 128 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Gangsters-Quotes-Mobsters-words-Illustrated/
The
Quotable Popes
Paperback 66 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Popes-Maria-Conasenti
The
Quotable Kahlil Gibran with Artwork from Kahlil Gibran
Paperback 52 pages
Kahlil Gibran, an artist, poet, and writer was born on January
6, 1883 n the north of modern-day Lebanon and in what was then part of Ottoman
Empire. He had no formal schooling in Lebanon. In 1895, the family immigrated
to the United States when Kahlil was a young man and settled in South Boston.
Gibran enrolled in an art school and was soon a member of the avant-garde
community and became especially close to Boston artist, photographer, and
publisher Fred Holland Day who encouraged and supported Gibran’s creative
projects. An accomplished artist in drawing and watercolor, Kahlil attended art
school in Paris from 1908 to 1910, pursuing a symbolist and romantic style. He
held his first art exhibition of his drawings in 1904 in Boston, at Day's
studio. It was at this exhibition, that Gibran met Mary Elizabeth Haskell, who
ten years his senior. The two formed an important friendship and love affair
that lasted the rest of Gibran’s short life. Haskell influenced every aspect of
Gibran’s personal life and career. She became his editor when he began to write
and ushered his first book into publication in 1918, The Madman, a slim volume
of aphorisms and parables written in biblical cadence somewhere between poetry
and prose. Gibran died in New York City on April 10, 1931, at the age of 48
from cirrhosis of the liver and tuberculosis.
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Kahlil-Gibran-artwork/
The
Quotable Dorothy Parker
Paperback 86 pages
The
Quotable Machiavelli
Paperback 36 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Machiavelli-Richard-L-Thayer
The
Quotable Greeks
Paperback 230 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Greeks-Richard-W-Willoughby
The
Quotabe Oscar Wilde
Paperback 24 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Oscar-Wilde-lessons-words/
The
Quotable Helen Keller
Paperback 66 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Helen-Keller-Richard-Willoughby
The Art
of War: Sun Tzu
Paperback 60 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Confucius-Lesson-Chinese-Quotables-ebook
The
Quotable Shakespeare
Paperback 54 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Shakespeare-Richard-W-Willoughby
The
Quotable Gorucho Marx
Paperback 46 pages
http://www.amazon.com/Quotable-Groucho-Marx-Devon-Alexander