ST PATRICK WAS CHINESE!

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And his parents came from Japan.

No? Italian? No! How about Scottish? Yup, and his parents were Scottish and rich. How is that for a combination, with the Scott’s reputation for being thrifty?

You must be asking: “What the HELL does this got to do with the price of Italian sausage, DelBloggolo???” Well first of all let me say, watch your language! Secondly, last week there was some debate about what St. Patrick was, was he Italian or French or British or what?

The tradition of St. Patrick Day, like Columbus Day is what America is all about, our ethnic pride, our roots and our values. It troubles me that we would think to infringe upon the Irish, or say someone else discovered America, or Steuben was really a Pole, because it isn’t the person so much as the pride in being Irish or Italian.

Watching the St. Patrick Day parade, I see a lot of happy, smiling faces, waving at the camera, and that is just the faces! They also are waving their arms and hands, and what it says to me is: here is a direct descendant of a man or woman or both, and took a challenge from America, to establish themselves and make a go of it in the greatest country in the world. But it doesn’t have to be Irish, or Italian: it could be Spanish or Puerto Rican, Polish or Chinese and Japanese.

Maybe it is time to have a ‘Ethnic Awareness Day’, where we all march in our ethnic colors in the same parade, maybe it is time to let go of the distinctions we make about each other and embrace the fact that we are all Americans first, like our ancestors who first came here, hoped.