The Wearing of the Green has some Folks seeing Red ...by Bill Knell
It had to happen. I’m just surprised that it took so long. Saint Patrick has become the latest victim of political correctness, secular humanism and separation of church and state ideology gone wild. Several public schools around the USA have decided that Saint Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday that violates school board rules against promoting religion. Their answer to allowing students to observe the celebration of this holiday is to change its and adjust the way they are allowed to celebrate it.
During the time that I grew up in the 1960s the public schools that I attended in New York State tended to ignore Saint Patrick’s Day. If students wanted to wear green, sport funny neckties or leprechaun-style hats that was fine, but only a few diehard teachers who took their Irish heritage very seriously dared to place any decorations on their classroom walls or doors. Again, this was tolerated because most school officials viewed the USA version of the holiday as being far more ethnic than religious.
Today, everything has changed. Atheists, the political correctness police and rapid followers of the largely perverted doctrine of the separation of church and state see holidays like Saint Patrick’s Day as an opportunity to assert their self-established authority and ruin everyone else’s fun. One school in Massachusetts has decided to change the name of Saint Patrick’s Day to O’Green Day. They will allow the wearing of the green, but other educators are not even willing to tolerate that indulgence.
Over the past few years several schools in California have asked their students not to wear all or mostly green clothes on Saint Patrick’s Day. At least one plans on making this a rule sometime in the near future. Their argument for the request is that allowing students who choose to celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day by wearing green clothing unfairly discriminates against others who might choose to wear an American or Mexican Flag on their clothes; or even sport gang colors, a bandana or other items that are currently banned by school dress codes.
I really do not see how wearing green clothes one day a year to celebrate a largely ethnic and peaceful holiday is related in any way, shape or form to wearing clothes with national flags on them which tend to ignite deep passions; or gang colors that almost always cause some sort of violent confrontation among students. However, none of this is a surprise to me. The culture of education that presently exists in many American Schools has been busy attacking everything from the pledge of allegiance to the actual display of the American flag in classrooms. Why? Because they favor a one world government and secular humanist approach to everything which promotes socialism and has zero tolerance for anything even remotely religious in nature.
The separation of church and state ideologues believe the statement from the U.S. Constitution which says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...” allows them to go on a continual rampage against anything and everything that smacks of religion in any public building or facility. They are always in their glory when they can stop a celebration related to any sort of religious holiday and they have found good company in the secular humanists who have similar goals.
No one wants to see the U.S. Constitution’s allowance for the free exercise of religion to be interpreted in such a way as to include practices like human sacrifice, bigamy, child abuse or even genocide. However, people should also not be allowed to have to right to use the statement which says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” to go around tearing the ten commandments off the walls of schools and government buildings or forbidding the recognition of holidays with any sort of religious connection in schools. Extremes in either direction are destructive elements in civilized society.
I believe we will soon get to the point where everything is offensive and intolerance of personal rights will ruin our nation. We are already on that road. Some schools discourage discussions about everything from fishing (because fish are intelligent beings that should not be killed) to firearms (because unlike cars, motorcycles, prescription and illegal drug abuse, alcohol consumption, knives and poison; only guns appear to actually kill people). Soon the flying or display of any flag (including Old Glory) will be banned because it has managed to offend someone.
It’s too bad that good old Saint Patrick is not with us today. I hear that he drove the snakes out of Ireland. If that’s true, I have some snakes that need to be driven out of the public schools! Oops. I guess calling him a Saint offends some people and I am sure that the name ‘Patrick’ might be troubling because it’s just too ethnically Irish. Maybe we can just start calling him Pat?
