Eulogy: On The Soul Of My Father

An American Passage
ON THE SOUL OF MY FATHER
by Joseph P. Shea

MONROE, N.Y., Sept. 9, 2006 -- Good morning. On behalf of my father and each member of the Shea Family, our thanks to you for being here this morning at a time which, with the passing of his brother Billy's beloved wife, Lorraine Shea, and indeed even the great matriarch of the Snee Family that gave that beautiful land to this church, that surely marks the passage of the generations.

From the era of our beloved father to this one a great deal of history has taken place, and at the time of every such passage it is appropriate and necessary that those whose lives have spanned so much of modern history speak to us about what they have seen.

From the beginning of his life near the turn of the century past, to our time, at the beginning of another, history has borne us forward from the rutted roads and open pastures of a bucolic farm to the urgent bustle and relentless energy of our own Monroe, a place that as many others are, is in the throes of constant change and facing the heat of constant challenge. And it is not different anywhere in the developed world.

That is why, when I was asked to speak this morning about my father's lifelong love of politics, I thought that the real job was to speak of what politics meant to him. As we commonly know it, politics is the fine art of reaching the compromises that make progress on any front possible despite our differences of opinion and character. And he was more than adept at that, having demonstrated it with the victory of his brother in 1954 by 64 votes in a hard-fought race for the municipal bench in Manhattan, where most of a century had passed in which the only Republican elected was his own father. But politics is part of a larger dimension, which is patriotism, and I have to tell you that patriotism infused every fiber of my father's being.

And it was not the popular fairy-tale version of patriotism that is pressed upon us from every corner today, but the deep, abiding kind that emerges from the long life of a man who not only loved but was his country. John S. Shea, Jr. soaked up the very roots of our great nation from the umbilical cord of his mother, whose family fled England long before the Revolution to escape religious persecution, and from the very seed of his forefathers, who fought for freedom and independence in Ireland before they fought here for a new version of those ideals in the Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II and Korea. His life, if it could ever be distilled into one single essence, would shine with love and hope for his country.

But in this temporal world, he speaks to us from a higher, native ground, and I now think it was him who inspired the words that came to me one night, "Foremost, seek clarity; first, search for the truth." For in truth, his patriotism took the form of an icy cold clarity that tried always to gaze into the often terrible face of truth. I was constantly after him to speak to me about the world as he saw it, about the past as he saw it, about our nation and its leadership as he saw it. And frankly, he saw it with an unforgiving eagle's eye that never dwelled on discontent, nor dissension, nor partisanship, but always looked cooly beyond our immediate time and place to summon the visage of history itself so that he might see how time was steadily and slowly remaking it. He saw out from those cherished and well-protected roots and his observations were impeccable.

I'm afraid my comments this moning would be meaningless if I did not tell you some of what he saw. I think like the battlements of Jericho he saw this nation under siege from within and without. I think he feared that the fierce rock hammer of Satan himself was being slammed with infinite force against its battlements, and that the rage of a terrible enemy was arrayed against us outside our walls. You and I look around ourselves in this beautiful setting and perhps see no sign of that political catastrophe he believed was coming. He spoke often about "the man on horseback" he feared would bring an end to our democracy and replace it with the very tyranny his ancestors fought to escape.

We are profoundly honored today to have with us my beloved cousin, Lt. Col. Michael Kies of the United States Marine Corps, who can attest to you the truth of the rage and chaos that has overtaken much of the Middle East, where he pledged his life to bring order and sanity to a region gone mad in the torment of rapid change. My father sharply rejected the war in Iraq as an enterprise built upon the lies of a President whose personal search for revenge against Saddam had led him into errors of a Biblical proportion. I could not agree with him, but I could not argue from a moral plane against his observations, either.

While he was a strategist who told me he was once ordered by the President to devise a nuclear battle plan to strike against North Korean forces that had massed on the South Korean border when American forces were engaging almost all of our ready forces during a Tet offensive in Vietnam, he had a moral sense that informed his view of that and other conflicts, while our time, and perhaps myself, look at today's war as a strategic necessity whose morality is ill-made. That is a very typical difference of our generations.

Today we often pretend to a morality in politics we do not possess, while those who are truly moral are silent or shouted down. We adopt a strategy that has no moral content or merely a moral pretext and find ourself adrift and confused when the strategy threatens to falter or fail. In fact, I have deeply felt that what saved us from a nuclear war at that time was not the decision of the North Koreans to pull back after the President's warning, but his prayers for divine intercession, the same that guided George Washington up Orange Turnpike in the summer of 1776.

My father would not be shouted down. And he would warn us that Americans of our time need to gain a deeper insight into who we are and where we are going. He was an enemy of waste and self-indulgence and endless words. He would urge us to revisit, and not to abandon but to honor the democratic process. He would ask us to find a way to embrace our differences and love our country with our meaningful actions as one people under God. He would warn us as did George Washington - who passed this very place on those rutted roads of long ago - that we must never allow our nation to become the pawn in a war of competing partisan ideologies, but to always put God and our country first, our family next, and our party somewhere in upper echelon of other priorities. He would tell you that America is not about a fevered calculation of our interests; it is instead history's greatest idea, and one always worth fighting for.

I will share with you one more reckless insight. In his last months he had descended into an angry dementia that would erupt without warning, even as his blindness grew deeper than ever before. But in other times of the day, he was silent and calm and listened, and sometimes spoke with surprising clarity. I wondered as I prepared these words overnight whether he had not subsumed his identity to that spitting, screeching, storming eagle of the mountaintop that flies too far above us to be seen or heard. He sees beyond the battlements, beyond our shores and time, to a history relentlessly advancing upon our nation with intentions we cannot know. But he would tell us to be still, to be ready, to be watchful, to engage with passion in the great debates of our day, to be well-informed and to think deeply not only for ourselves but for our country, and to always care very much for one another. For me, and perhaps for my brothers and sister and beloved Mother, is the message of his life. In the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson's great essay, "On Politics," he is "the Republican at home."

Together, let us promise that we will fulfill his great vision for all of us. I leave you with his favorite and inimitable words: "Ah has spoken."

Joe Shea is Editor-in-Chief of The American Reporter. He delivered this eulogy for his father at Sacred Heart Catholic Church Chapel in Monroe, N.Y., on Sept. 9, 2006.

In Memoriam + John S. Shea, Jr. 1909 - 2006

My father, who enjoyed living in Bradenton in the Winter since 1991, passed away today at the age of 95. There is an obituary for him in today's American Reporter, which also appears below:

May He Rest In Peace
+ John S. Shea, Jr. +
January 30, 1909 - September 5, 2006
Loving Father, Great American and Trusted Friend

Passings
JOHN S. SHEA, JR., A MAN OF GREAT HUMILITY AND MANY ACHIEVEMENTS, DIES AT 95
American Reporter Staff
Bradenton, Fla.

John S. Shea, Jr., the father of American Reporter founder and editor Joe Shea, a lifelong resident of Monroe, N.Y., died Sept. 5 at 6:10 a.m. at Arden Hill Hospital in Goshen after a brief hospitalization for pneumonia. He was 95.

"I owe to my father my own deep interest in politics and world affairs, a hardy constitution and a country that was improved by his efforts at building a family, working a farm and serving America for 30 years," Joe Shea said this morning. "He was also the funniest man I have ever known, who taught all his children the saving power of laughter. And he was a wise man, both in the way he developed as a person and a father, in his insights into political and world affairs, and in his many prescient investments. We treasured his letters, his advice and his constant stream of quips that never failed to hit our funny-bones. Mireya and myself, and all who knew him, will miss him terribly."

The son of the then-Sheriff of New York County, John S. Shea, and Mary [Alcok] Olcott, John Jr. was born in New York City on January 30, 1909. His mother died when he was just two, and he was raised with his brother Billy by his father and his aunt, Annie Flanagan Froelich, at a family brownstone on the East Side of Manhattan, where his father served as Republican District Leader in the so-called "Silk Stocking District" for more than 44 years.

John was the loving husband of Nina D. Shea of Monroe, who survives him. They were married in New York City on November 30, 1936. Their marriage weathered 70 years of tumult and triumph, and the generations of Sheas that followed.

He is also survived buy his daughter, Mary Ann Kies of Long Beach, Calif., William P. Shea of Monroe, Ga., Joseph P. Shea of Bradenton, and Patrick O'Farrell Shea of Falls Church, Va., and many grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces and nephews. His eldest son, John S. Shea III, preceded him in death.

John was a career Federal civil servant who began his career with the New York City Division of Elections, the Internal Revenue Service, the state Dept. of Corrections and the United States Air Force, where he served as Deputy Comptroller of the 32nd Air Division during the Cuban Missile Crisis and also as a Single Integrated Operations Plan officer at Misawa AFB on the northernmost Japanese island, Hokkaido, during the Vietnam War, where he prepared nuclear battle plans for the defense of the United States at the command of the President. He also served with Military Manpower Command of the United States Army after his retirement from the Air Force, and finally as Director of Internal Audit for the U.S. Customs House in New York City, where his father was Paymaster in 1892.

John's grandfather, Patrick Shea, was a New York City upholsterer, and joined the Republican Party in New York after being saved from near death after he suffered grievous wounds at the Battle of Gettysburg, where was a 15-year-old scout for the Confederacy. With five bullet wounds in his face from a confrontation with a Union cavalry officer, he was captured, cared for and then sent by the Union to relatives in New York City. He was to die there at the turn of the 20th Century when he was tossed down a flight of stairs by rioting Democrats. In\ fact, Patrick's son may be the real-life figure who campaigned for Sheriff in Gangs of New York, a movie in which the last spoken words are "Shea... Shea." The family's political history was a point of pride for John Shea.

"My father was a careful and deliberate thinker whose voting pattern underwent a remarkable change in his 80s. He was a lifelong Republican who found himself deeply dismayed by President George W. Bush, and he realized very, very early that the Iraq War was a costly mistake. He always supported the troops, of course, and especially his grand-nephew Lt. Col, Michael Kies, the son of his eldest child, Mary Ann, but he did not support the war. Among his peers - meaning seniors and Republicans - he was virtually alone in that. I was proud of his independence, and I hope I will always emulate it," Joe Shea said.

He will be remembered with love and laughter by his family and many friends as an unfailing pillar of strength and a man of great good humor whose quips, stories and advice sustained all of them through difficult times. He was also an astute investor who was working on Wall Street as a courier of stocks and bonds during the Great Crash of 1929. He served in the latter stages of Wiorld War II in the U.S. Army, and during the Occupation of Germany. He was campaign manager for his brother William S. Shea when the late State Supreme Court Justice first won election to the bench in Manhattan in 1954 - by just 64 votes - in what was the only Republican victory in Manhattan since John's father was elected Sheriff of New York County in 1909. After his father's death, he also served as District Leader in the East Side Republican Club of Manhattan, from which Mayor John Lindsay later emerged. Despite his many accomplishments, he possessed a simple humility, and his deep faith in God was well known to his family. He took great pride in his family's Revolutionary War-era home on Rye Hill Road, which his father purchased from New York Herald Tribune publisher Whitney Reid in 1909. He was living there with his beloved wife Nina at the time of his passing.

Friends may call on Wednesday and Thursday, Sept. 7 and 8, during the hours of 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at Smith, Seaman & Quackenbush at 117 Maple Ave. in Monroe.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church, where he was a lifelong parishioner. Burial will be at the family plot at St. Anastasia Church in Harriman, N.Y. Details are pending.

The Trib Two-Times The Herald On Local Crimes

We noted that in the two weeks since we criticized the Bradenton Herald for including the Bayshore Gardens Parkway neighborhood in the 9 and 1/2 square mile crime box devised by Sheriff Charlie Wells that the paper's weekly crime statistics have shown nearly a 300 percent increase from about four crimes a week to 13 in the last Sunday paper.

Whether that's driven by the new ordinance intended to drive the homeless out of Bradenton's city limits or the paper's fear of a lawsuit, we don't know, but the fact of crime here in southwest Bradenton was sharply heightened when I got to the bank this afternoon and found it had just been robbed.

The Bank of America branch at Bayshore Gardens Parkway and 14th St./US 41 got hit in an incident that witnesses said had police cars "flying in from every direction." I asked a departing bank teller I know if it had been robbed, and she answered, simply, "Yes." The banks public area was closed down, but the drive-in windows continued to operate. When I asked the teller what happened, she responded, "We're not allowed to talk about it."

[Later in the day I saw other tellers, and they told me no one was hurt and no money was taken in the incident.]

[At 12:43am Satuyrday morning, I found a fullish story in the incident on the Trib Website, but there's still nothing on the Herald Website. See below.]
I called the Herald a minute or two after I reached the bank, but hours have passed since then and they still are leading their website with irrelevant stuff like "a new address" for New College.
However, the Herald told me that there had been a hostage incident this morning near there, but they apparently haven't gotten a story done at 5pm EST Friday, as I write this.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune, however, has a pretty full account of the hostage crisis:

September 01. 2006 4:13PM

Shot fired, but South Manatee stand-off ends without injury

STAFF REPORT

SOUTH MANATEE — A sheriff’s deputy who was part of a SWAT raid Friday at an apartment fired a shot at a suicidal man armed with a handgun, narrowly missing the man in his bedroom. The nearly five-hour standoff ended without injury, police said.

Authorities did not identify the 41-year-old man who called 911 about 8:50 a.m. telling a dispatcher that he wanted a paramedic to respond to his apartment to pick up his body.

The sheriff’s SWAT team raided the apartment about 1:20 p.m. using a smoke device to disorient the man, who was found with a gun. A single shot was fired at the man, but the bullet missed.

The man, who lived in the 1000 block of Longfellow Court, off Whitfield Avenue, refused to come out of his residence, sheriff’s officials said. A lieutenant, William Evers, communicated with the man via cell phone.

Sheriff’s spokesman Dave Bristow, explaining the missed shot, said it was dark in the residence and there was smoke lingering in rooms.

“It was pretty close to hitting him,” Bristow said. Bristow said the shooting is under routine administrative review. The man was taken into custody for a mental health evaluation.

Here's the Trib's story on the bank robbery from its Website:

September 01, 2006 5:48PM

Bradenton bank robber haggles with clerk just a little too long

STAFF REPORT

BRADENTON — A would-be bank robber never got a chance to execute his getaway plan, if indeed he had one.

Sheriff’s deputies rolled up up to the bank Friday afternoon as the man was apparently haggling with a clerk over the denomination of bills he was about to steal.

Sheriff’s officials said Bradenton resident William R. Dawson, 26, tried to rob the Bank of America in the 6100 block of 14th Street West about 1:50 p.m.

When deputies arrived, Dawson was still in the bank, Manatee County sheriff’s spokesman Dave Bristow said. Dawson was arrested on a robbery charge and taken to the county jail.

Witnesses told deputies that Dawson walked into the bank and demanded money. He told the teller he was armed, but authorities did not find a weapon.

“We certainly have our fair share of arrests, but not that often while the person is till trying to rob the bank,” Bristow said.

Bristow attributed the arrest to combination of a fast law enforcement response to the bank and a criminal who wasn’t paying attention.

“He had conversation going with the teller,” Bristow said. “He was asking for hundreds. She said we don’t have any. Then he asked for fifties. He kept going.”

.