VLVL2 (9.5): "Father Flanagan"

[Dave Monroe]

"'Just what I wanted today, just when the cash flow's
starting to turn around, just as I'm finding my life's
true meaning as a businessperson, I might've known it,
in you wlatz and suddenly I've got to be Father
Flanagan.'  She shook her head, pursed her lips like a
nun, but sat and heard out DL's confession." (VL, Ch.
9, pp. 153-4)

"Father Flanagan"

In 1917, Americans nervously scanned casualty lists
from faraway Europe. For months the nation had been
committed to war - many people felt for the last time.
[...] However reluctantly, America had willed to pay
whatever price was necessary in lives and in goods to
secure a world at peace. A world without casualties. 

In Omaha, Nebraska, a young Irish priest reflected
that such a world probably would never exist. For he
knew that long after the last battle there would be
casualties - the casualties of peace. The lost and
homeless ones were ever present, more often in times
of social crisis, but never absent even in times of
booming prosperity. 

Among these were the orphans, the rejected children,
the young rebels whom society didn't understand and
therefore, didn't want. Daily, 31-year-old Father
Edward J. Flanagan saw and read about these youthful
castoffs. They were a living fact, growing in number.
Their enemies were neglect, indifference and
ignorance. Survival for them was uncertain, and the
future was bleak even for those clever and strong
enough to make it to maturity. 

Father Flanagan too often had observed the young and
vulnerable attempt to escape despair through lives of
crime. He vowed a personal war against afflictions of
the young, especially those of homeless boys. 
 
http://www.girlsandboystown.org/aboutus/history/index.asp#Before%20Boys%20Town

http://www.girlsandboystown.org/aboutus/history/index.asp

http://www.girlsandboystown.org/home.asp

Actor Spencer Tracy won an Academy Award for his
portrayal of Father Flanagan in "Boys Town," a film
that has become an American classic.

http://www.girlsandboystown.org/aboutus/history/index.asp#Academy%20Award

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0029942/

Okay, a little slow outta the gate today, but ...

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