Time To Make A Change: Thoughts on Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade

St. PatrickWhat is the purpose of LGBT (gay) veterans wanting to march in St. Patrick’s Day parade? We never seem to get to the bottom of that issue. The veterans who run the parade say it is all right for gays to march in the parade as long as they stay in the closet. Imagine a group of straights pushing closets down Broadway. It would be all right if they did not have to push them up Telegraph Hill to the Dorchester Heights. (As a kid living in South Boston I could never figure out why that was the name of the heights.)

I suppose if George Washington’s troops could push cannons up that hill there are people around today who could do it with the closets. Of course the closets would all have to be painted a battleship gray (or is it grey) and no rainbows would be allowed to be seen on the outside. Gays are welcome as long as those conditions are met and under no circumstance should they be able to show pride in being gay unlike the Irish who can show pride in being Irish or veterans who can show their pride.

Speaking of that, I never quite understood why it is the veterans who get to run the parade. Isn’t it time that those who seek to honor St. Patrick, who was Irish or at least an immigrant to Ireland (fortunately at that time O’Trump was not in control) and beyond that a Catholic who converted the whole population and drove the snakes out of Ireland that Irish Catholics be given the right to run the parade.

Or more simply, what have the veterans to do with St. Patrick who conquered Ireland without firing a shot. It really is insulting when you come down to it that you do not have to be an Irish Catholic to run the parade. Or at least Irish because as I understand it St. Patrick was not  bothered much by the protestants (none were around at the time) and Irish history being what it is those who know about it realize the great contribution the Irish protestant fighters, poets, writers, politicians and leaders contributed to its history and freedom.

I suggest it is time to kick the veterans out and put the Irish in charge. That, of course, begs the question about the gays. Would it be all right if a gay Irish person was put in charge? If that happened, I suppose the closets would no longer have to be pushed up Telegraph Hill. But even that may not be something to worry about in the future.

I see that the idea of having a St. Patrick’s Day parade in South Boston is slowly being done away with. Here is what happened. The veterans took such a beating in their attempt to prevent a banner with a rainbow being carried in the parade that they are like whipped dogs cowering in a corner afraid to come out because the overseer with the whip is still there. In order to show their abject surrender they went along with the suggestion of cutting the parade more than in half on the pretense that the prospect of a couple of snowflakes may make the trek up and down Telegraph Hill treacherous.

With that, they were patted on the head and let out of the corner. I have to believe no Irishman would ever have agreed to shorten the parade. That is another reason to kick the veterans out.

Unfortunately it seems that St. Patrick has become old hat to the proper Bostonians and present day Irish politicians like the mayor and police commissioner. My grandfather told me the worst people to the Irish were the Irish. They were always ready to sell them out to please the others.

First they did away with the St. Patrick’s day holiday in Suffolk County; next they no longer celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 17 (how soon will Christmas become on the Monday following the 25th to extend the shopping season?); and now they cut the parade in more than half.

I’m told that the veterans having been cowed into submission have agreed that next year, 2018, their permit request will have the parade run from Broadway Station to Andrew Station as it has over the many years before this year. However they agreed to make a small route change. To avoid the crowds it will go straight down Dorchester Avenue (there’s that Dorchester in Southie again). In 2019 the route will be around Broadway Station.

‘Tis a great pity the Irish saint is being undermined by others including the Irish themselves. It is time for a change. It is time to put the saint back in Saint Patrick and realize that veterans and saints don’t commingle. It is time to put the Irish in charge and to drive out all those snakes who have been taking away the joy of a fine parade from the future generations.

15 Comments

  1. “Actually, there is no such thing as a homosexual person, any more than there is such a thing as a heterosexual person. The words are adjectives describing sexual acts, not people. The sexual acts are entirely normal; if they were not, no one would perform them.”

    Gore Vidal
    Veteran and Author

  2. Turning Buckley on his head: “The only thing wrong with Liberalism is Liberals”. If I profess to be an unreconstructed liberal in the mode of HHH (which I do), the limousine liberals of Newton would run me out of town as a reactionary.

    How can these so-called liberals weep over the Parade Case when their priests in the ACLU finally admitted they were on the wrong side of the issue (while withholding much-needed support from the those fighting that fight—Dowling , Connolly et al)?

  3. John King McDonald

    Yes, clearly the Sisters Of The Holy Assumption marching school band is a hate group. Such is the overheated illogical rhetoric of the Left. It is not that the Lefties are stupid, they are not, or cannot clearly articulate their views, they can, or that they are not passionately conmitted to their views, they are. The problem is not an inability to concede the same to orhers, but to obstinately persist in outrageous characterization, as a political tactic, and not to be intellectually honest. To be intellectually honest and consistent, one would have to characterize the Gay Veterans marching in St. Pat’s as a ” hate group. ” I was there for their first match. On the return leg on East Seventh most of our neighbors turned their backs on them as they marched by. I told my seven year old Son that we would not do so. And we did not. They were a ragtag, beleaguered band that first year as they marched past. They had a lot of courage to march. I admired that. I wanted John to see that. Their inclusion in the Parade was vouchsafed by the Political Left, however. It was a poke in the eye of the South Boston Community. It was a muscle play, and Southie wasn’t up for being muscled. Look not for the hate in another’s eye. For evidently it is in your own. 🙂

  4. I don’t think you guys should get so bent out of shape by a different point of view. Opposition to Trump doesn’t make you a liberal. It just shows you’ve got common sense. I celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, and so did the gay veterans who marched in the parade. Your response to this is to dispatch hate groups to the Gay Pride parade?? Sounds like a Deep State plot to discredit conservatives.

  5. John King McDonald

    All of the traditional South Boston Veterans’ Association contingents should be marshalled to march in Boston’s Gay Pride Parade. Turn about being fair play as they say in Dublin. Clearly, the same ” Parade Logic ” now allows for this. It would be a wild and rebellious Irish howl at the absurdity of political correctness ; a thumb in the eye of that smug orb so maliciously gleaming when it comes to beating up on all that is proudly South Boston, The Globe! It would be a riot . 🙂

  6. I’m a proud conservative. (not a neocon) Historically some of my favorite people have been conservatives (Buckley, Reagan, Sowell, Buchanan) and some liberals (Truman, JFK, Hubert Humphrey). Not all liberals are bad. Today’s liberalism is bad, in my humble opinion, and those who parrot its tenets are mistaken, badly and bigly.
    When someone quacks like a duck . . .

  7. DanC.

    Yes, I am exorcised about the Left’s constant assault on the Free Speech rights of Americans.

    Seriously? You see nothing wrong with taking away a permit to speak and assemble and parade from one group and “giving” it to another? The City doesn’t own the right to free speech. The City can’t willy nilly take parade permits away and redistribute them to favored speakers. All this has been argued ad nauseum, and the liberals lost bigly and the conservative Veterans won bigly.

    Put the shoe on the other foot: How about taking away the Gay-Pride permit and give it to a Traditional Marriage group? Would that be O.K. in your book? How about taking away that Bunker Hill Day Parade permit from those Charlestown folks and giving it to a gay-pride group?

    Tadzio. Yes, the Parade is a celebration of Evacuation Day; the British evacuated Boston in 1776 on March 17th, the birthday of the St. Patrick. But beyond that the Continental Army’s password on that day, during the seige of Boston and occupation of Dorchester Heights, was “St. Patrick.”

  8. I don’t think Matt is a liberal. Deviation from the conservative line every now and then isn’t enough to consign him to the fires of left-wing Hell. I think your post proves my point about who is worked up about the Supreme Court ruling. Nothing wrong with giving somebody else a chance to run the parade. The veterans don’t own it, assuming the people calling the shots actually are veterans. St. Patrick would be rolling over in his grave (and perhaps is) if he could see the current state of affairs.

  9. Why are Veterans in charge of the Evacuation Day parade, aka, St. Patrick’s Day parade? Was told long ago it had to do with a compromise to accommodate two factions in 1901. It makes sense that veterans would want to celebrate General Howe being pushed out of Boston by Washington’s army. The Yankees got the military victory to feel good about the Irish got the saint to be honored. My understanding is that the legislation always called it Evacuation Day while the paraders called it St. Patrick’s day. Thug Marty Walsh very well could be unaware of the roots of the event. Shortening the parade route this year was a petty, transparently mendacious retaliation by a politician abusing power. Hopefully he will face a tough November and a work free January.

    • tadzio, if you wish Walsh a work-free January (as so many do) please run against him. There’s still time.

  10. DanC:
    Of course you agree with Matt: You’re liberals!
    You don’t know of a single liberal upset by the 1995 ruling? The Boston Globe publicly called for a boycott of the Parade after the ruling. Liberals across the country stewed and steamed. Stop the leftist revisionism! Liberal pols boycotted the parade for 20-plus years. Upset? Liberals went apoplectic one month ago when the Veterans decided they didn’t want gay-pride flags in the parade. They still are apoplectic at the thought of a parade without gay-pride symbols! Viz: Mayor Marty!
    And look at you: calling for the parade permit to be forcibly taken away from the Veterans. That’s what Mayor Walsh threatened: He’d deny the permit! (See Veterans 2016 Federal suit) That’s what liberalism is today: Don’t like the expression: Shut it down!
    Hey, if you don’t like the Parade. Get your own permit! In 1994, Cambridge ran their own “inclusive” parade. It stunk. It lasted 2 years.

    2. Your statement: “I don’t know of a single liberal upset by the 1995 ruling” reminds me of Matt’s post last Fall: “I don’t know of single person voting for Trump!”

  11. I’m with Matt on this one. I don’t know a single liberal, including moi, who’s embittered by the Supreme Court ruling . From the vantage point of left field, it looks like only the Angry White Male wing of the conservative movement gets worked up about this judicial ruling. And who’s to say that the vets now in charge of the parade are not members of the “deep state” that secretly runs the U.S.? Time to give somebody else a chance. It’s what St. Patrick would have wanted.

  12. Bill is right . Liberals are still embittered over their defeat in the Supreme Court on the St. Pats parade issue. All should applaud the Vets for keeping the parade alive and well. Forced busing is a bad idea. Forced speech is also bad. How long will it take Liberals to get over the election results? They seem incapable of acceptance. 2. Trump is a man of his word. Conservative Supreme Court pick. Pipeline authorization. Deregulation. Repeal Obamacare. Strict vetting. Tax cuts. He ran on those issues and is keeping his promises. Too bad more pols weren’t like him. 3. Trump appears to be correct that he was spied on by the Obama people. Nunes discloses multiple FISA warrants. Incidental collection of Trump transition team beyond just Flynn. Several are illegally unmasked. Add that to the FBI investigation on the Trump campaign in July and you have a full court press by the Intel guys and law enforcement of the Obama Administration against the opposing political party. This is a massive scandal. Unprecedented in American political history. Using the full apparatus of the State to spy on Americans for their political beliefs. These are the tactics of totalitarian states. The deep state in the U S is copying the East German Stasi. Heads should roll. The swamp must be drained. 3. Some who have posted here seemed to be concerned about our water supply. Comparable to Gen. Ripper they are worried about their precious bodily fluids. Their apprehension is unjustified. Trump has no plans to influence their vital natural liquids. Although he may be working on a doomsday device.

  13. Matt:

    You’ve hoisted yourself on your own petard.

    Your grandfather was right: Some Irish resent the success of other Irish. The Veterans led by Irishmen Wacko Hurley and Jimmy Kelly and Lebanese American Chester Darling won a great victory for all Americans in 1995. Free Speech won (9-0). For twenty years thereafter the traditional parade was run as it always had been before to the delight of one million spectators annually.

    Then came Mayor Marty Walsh and the constant pressure.

    There will always be Informers (Jippo Nolan), Turncoats (Arnold) and cranks who align with or want to ingratiate themselves with the Globe and radical liberalism. (Marty Walsh and others).

    Those who cheer the forced inclusion of gay-pride signs today, like the Globe and others, called for the same forced inclusion in the early 1990s. Or at least were silent while the Courts crushed the Veterans Constitutional Free Speech Rights.

    Those who want to take the Parade Permit away from the Veterans today, made the same arguments in court, in the press and in secret in the early 1990s.