Some Mothers Day thoughts, courtesy of our Vice President

A Tribute to an Irish Mother
By Joseph R. Biden

My mother Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden is the soul, spirit, and essence of what it means to be an Irish American. She honors tradition and understands the thickest of all substances is blood.

She has taught her children, and all children who flocked to her hearth in my neighborhood, that you are defined by your sense of honor and you are redeemed by your loyalty.

She is the quintessential combination of pragmatism and optimism.

She also understands as my friend Pat Moynihan once said, there is no “point in being Irish if you don't know that the world is going to break your heart eventually.”

But she is more. She measures success in how quickly you get up after you have been knocked down. She believes bravery lives in every heart, and her expectation is that it will be summoned.

Failure at some point in everyone’s life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable. As long as you are alive you have an obligation to strive. And you are not dead until you’ve seen the face of God.

My mother, I believe, is a living portrait of what it means to be Irish –- proud on the edge of defiance. Generous to a fault; committed to the end. She not only made me believe in myself, but scores of my friends and acquaintances believe in themselves.

As a child I stuttered, and she said it was because I was so bright I couldn’t get the thoughts out quickly enough. When my face was dirty, and I was not as well dressed as others, she told me how handsome I was.

When my wife and daughter were killed, she told me God sends no cross a man is not able to bear.

And when I triumphed, she reminded me it was because of others.

I remember her watching through the kitchen window as I got knocked down by two bigger guys behind my grandfather’s house, and she sent me back out and demanded that I, to use their phrase, bloody their nose, so I could walk down that alley the next day.

When my father quit his job on the spot because his abusive boss threw a bucket full of silver dollars on the floor of a car dealership to make a point about his employees, she told him how proud she was.

No one is better than you. You are every man’s equal and everyone is equal to you. You must be a man of your words, for without your words you’re not a man.

Her pragmatism showed up when I was in eighth grade, a lieutenant on the safety patrol. My job was to keep order on the bus. My sister and best friend Valerie acted up. At dinner that night I told my mother and father I had a dilemma. I had to turn my sister in as a matter of honor. My parents said that was not my only option. The next day I turned my badge in.

I believe the traits that make my mother a remarkable woman mirror the traits that make the Irish a remarkable people. Bent, but never bowed. Economically deprived, but spiritually enriched. Denied an education, but a land of scholars and poets.

When I think of my mother I think of the Irish poem ‘Any Woman’ by Katherine Tynan:
“I am the pillars of the house; The keystone of the arch am I. Take me away, and roof and wall Would fall to ruin utterly. I am the fire upon the hearth, I am the light of the good sun, I am the heat that warms the earth, Which else were colder than a stone.”

http://www.irishamericannews.com/index.php/people/social-circle/201-a-tribute-to-an-irish-mother

"Her pragmatism showed up when I was in eighth grade, a lieutenant on the safety patrol. My job was to keep order on the bus. My sister and best friend Valerie acted up. At dinner that night I told my mother and father I had a dilemma. I had to turn my sister in as a matter of honor. My parents said that was not my only option. The next day I turned my badge in."


So if it's a family member or a friend who breaks the rules, we're just supposed to ignore it?


A friend of mine drives a school bus for special needs students. His sole job is to drive the bus; there is a "monitor" who keeps an eye on the children. One little boy on the bus is also a neighbor of my friend, and the boy has "adopted" him as an extra grandpa. A few days ago, the boy was acting out, making a lot of noise even though he'd been told a couple times by the monitor to be quiet. After the route was over, my friend asked the monitor, "Why the hell didn't you make that kid shut up? He was driving me crazy!" And the monitor said, "But I know he and his parents are your friends and neighbors. I didn't, you know, want to get on him." But my friend said, "Your job is to keep order on this bus, regardless who misbehaves. No favoritism. IF anything, my friends should be held to a higher standard. They know better."


Joe Biden should know better, too.




Tansy Gold

I was taken aback by this also, but still respect that they understood that he couldn't keep the position without taking action.

He knew she was in the wrong. But he left it to someone else to mete out the consequences. Because he would be the one to have to live with his sister and the ramifications.

Never did he say he felt his sister should not be punished. Just that he would not be the one to do it. In his mind it was best that she be punished by someone not related to her. In doing so she still received what she should have as punishment, and he maintains peace in the home.

Ignoring it would have been to turn a blind eye to his sister's behavior and keep on being the monitor.

Sounds like consistency in what he was taught to me....that being, to prize your familial ties. And he did so in a way that was honorable.

Cronyism implies that someone you favor benefits from something you've done. Exactly how did Valerie benefit from his actions? She still got punished.

She embodies the very essence of "cronyism." :crazy:

JRB is outspoken about his Catholic faith. DU has a nasty subset of people who loathe all things Catholic, and who view Biden's faith as a character flaw.

Nowhere does his little Mother's Day homily say anything about his sister ever being called to account for what she did. And for all I know, this is a made-up story like probably half the anecdotes on DU.

I certainly said nothing about his being told to go out and bloody the other bully's nose. There were other things I didn't entirely agree with, but they didn't matter to me. And finding fault with one thing a person does does NOT mean I hate them. jesus fucking christ, do you think I consider my kids perfect, without flaw? Not hardly. But that doesn't mean I don't love them.

But this comment does illustrate what GD and GD-P really are the land of no return. Suggest that Biden or Obama are anything less than perfect and you're takin' your life in your hands.

Enjoy your ignorance, folks.



Tansy Gold, who has never found ignorance to be bliss

Holy hell, people, get a fucking grip. :eyes:

He chose to give up the job which is the same thing as saying he couldn't do it the way it needed to be done. I think his choice was the better one. Had he chosen to cover up for his sister and also keep the job then he would have been less of a person. There are things you don't compromise in your life if you want to be a person of honor in your own eyes.

his impersonator claimed in that satirical skit! "As my dear sainted mother would say (about McCain), 'God love him , he's a fine, upstanding man, but he's bad at his job and a liabiity to the country...'" That sort of thing!

Is it wrong that I read this with his shouting voice in my head? :P

and her son is a good man...