Why We Should Not Celebrate St. Patrick's Day

In the past, I've enjoyed celebrating St. Patty's Day because it meant eating corned beef and cabbage. I'm an extremely light drinker (1-2 drinks a month) and could go without drinking altogether. So, truthfully, I don't look for excuses to drink - let alone drink beer that's been pumped full of artificial dyes to turn it green.

But even if you don't drink, it's fun to go to a local dive where you can mingle with other people who don't want to stay at home. St. Patty's Day is an excuse to dress and act extravagantly, eat foods you don't normally eat, and drink more than you should. (At this point, I'm sure many of you are nodding vigorously and asking "What's wrong with that?")

St. Patrick's Day sends two wrong messages:

1. Irish people are drunken sots.
2. We celebrate diversity.

Let's tackle the first one. Sure, you know someone who's Irish who isn't a drunken sot, but deep down inside you know the stereotypical image. If we're trying to get away from stereotyping races and cultures, don't we wish to discard this?

Are all Scots miserly? Are all Mexican immigrants illegal? Are all blacks criminals? Are all rich white people snobs? Are all convenience store owners Indian? ...well, OK, I might give you that last one (kidding!). But you get the picture.

Well what about the second? Don't we see t-shirts and bumperstickers everywhere, commanding "celebrate diversity!" Why, there's even a month set aside in which we're preached at incessantly to celebrate it. Celebrate it how I don't know, but we're supposed to be celebrating it continually, it seems.

OK, who went to civics class when they were in 7th or 8th grade? Let me see a show of hands! Remember how our teacher kept driving home that the USA was one big "Melting Pot"? At the time, there were many of us who didn't even know who or what our ancestors were. We only knew we were American.

Sure, some of our ancestors didn't assimilate right away. And in New York, we still have Chinatown and Little Italy and other separatist enclaves. But the truth is that our ancestors understood a powerful truth. They might have lived in Little Italy, but they still worked in America, and to be useful citizens, they had to learn English and American customs.

Almost everyone who came to America loved America. They may have come from all over the globe, but they were loyal to the country that gave them the opportunities they couldn't find elsewhere. Most of these early immigrants had entered legally and came with their own sets of morals and values that were still based on Christianity. Generally, these morals and values were common throughout the USA at the time, and it was these values that provided the true glue that stuck us all together.*

Now we look into the pot and we no longer see a fondue. Instead, we see a swirling, seething mixture of unidentifiable chunks. We are no longer a melting pot: We are now a rather horrid stew.

Abraham Lincoln once said "A nation divided against itself cannot long stand". Ultimately, it doesn't take good old Abe to tell us this. We know it if we are blessed with common sense. And yet, we are more divided than ever.

There is strong evidence that we are sinking into increased lawlessness due to a lack of religion which serves as "Big Brother" even when the law isn't around to enforce good behavior. Much of our lack of cohesion comes from the lack of loyalty to our fellow man. This loyalty is taught in many of the major religions which have been abandoned today to the Cult of Self.

(Incidentally, I have friends who are atheist and swear they have their own moral codes that they rigidly stick to, but I always ask "Then who do you answer to when you break your own rules?" They shrug and admit it's a flawed system.)

Of course America isn't alone in leaving religion behind. There are many countries that have sunk even lower than we have.

It is today's Cult of Self that keeps us diversified. Most Americans today secretly believe that they are more special than their fellow man. We have neglected Christ's admonition to love our neighbors as ourselves and believe we should love our neighbors a little more than we love our 99 cent chicken nuggets.

For those of you who are browbeating yourselves at this moment, please stop it immediately. The fact that you are taking this at all seriously means that it doesn't apply to you. In fact, some of you are probably overdoing it.

So who are the people who do not love us as much as they love themselves? Some of them are the illegal immigrants, who believe that the ends justify the means. They think we're a bunch of rich, spoiled pigs who are keeping all the goodies to ourselves. They believe they're entitled to help unload a little of the perceived American largesse.

Others are the legal immigrants who refuse to adapt. Many of these legal immigrants fly their former country's flag, speak their former country's language (and expect us to accomodate this), and tell us how their country is superior to America for so many reasons that they've lost count. Why they choose to stay in America is beyond me.

Finally, we have our own citizens who do not appreciate the freedoms and opportunities to be found in America. Although they have no knowledge of their ancestral countries, they cling to them like a drowning man clings to a raft. In order to make up for their own shortcomings, they focus their hopes and dreams on a mythical place that would, in all reality, be very unpleasant for them to adapt to. People who indulge in such fantasies speak longingly of the motherland (see Barack Obama's Church for one example).

Celebrating St. Patty's Day is no longer pure, innocent fun. In our modern times, diversity has become divisive. Do we really wish to encourage it further?

*Please note that there are other religions that teach similar concepts (as Christianity) and thus their cultures were/are also easily assimilated into American culture. Some of those religions include, but are not limited to, Judaism, Buddhism, Bahaiism, Hinduism, Lamaism, Confucianism, Sikhism, Jainism, etc.