Nanny State Update

School Principal Declares: "Happy O'Green Day"


I reported earlier how a child in a Staunton, Virginia was 'busted' for bringing a Wendy's lunch to school [1.]

The Ultimate Politically Correct Holiday Renaming!

Now they're not hanging men and women for the 'wearin' of the green' at Wilbraham, Massachussetts' Soule Road School, but school principal Lisa Curtin has banished the celebration of St. Patrick's Day. Students now celebrate "O'Green Day." Although it sounds like an occasion created for encouraging pupils to drink O'Doul's (non-alcoholic beer), students will actually be encouraged to eat green vegetables in the cafeteria (why am I not surprised)?

In fact, I'm expecting whole lesson plans designed to encourage students to pester their parents into buying Chevy Volts, Priuses and other activites designed to save the planet. Why not a unit on endangered snake species while we're at it. Instead of kissing the Blarney Stone, let's have a film by Al Gore on Global Warming. That would help define 'Blarney' to a whole new generation! Yes, I think O'Green Day will be celebrated all-out by certain people!

And while we're at it, let's confiscate any gold foil wrapped choclate coins the kids have to further protect the government school lunch monopoly! Leprechaun food is 'competitive food.' [2.]

Valentine's Day at the school has been renamed to "Caring and Kindness Day," say parents at the school. Fox News [click to read] has more on the story.


Surprise visitor: A green-headed mallard in the back yard.

The Wearing of The Green

by Dion Boucicault (1820-1890) [3.]

O Paddy dear, and did you hear the news that going round?
The shamrock is forbid by law to grow on Irish ground;
St. Patrick's Day no more we'll keep, his colours can't be seen,
For there's a bloody law against the wearing of the green.
I met with Napper Tandy and he took me by the hand,
And he said, "How's poor old Ireland, and how does she stand?"
She's the most distressful counterie that ever yet was seen,
And they're hanging men and women for the wearing of the green.

Then since the colour we must wear is England's cruel red,
Sure Ireland's sons will ne'er forget the blood that they have shed.
You may take a shamrock from your hat and cast it on the sod,
It will take root and flourish there though underfoot it's trod.
When law can stop the blades of grass from growing as they grow,
And when the leaves in summer-time their verdure dare not show,
Then will I change the colour that I wear in my caubeen
But 'till that day, please G-d, I'll stick to wearing of the green.

But if at last our colour should be torn from Ireland's heart,
Our sons with shame and sorrow from this dear old isle will part;
I've heard a whisper of a land that lies beyond the sea
Where rich and poor stand equal in the light of freedom's day.
O Erin, must we leave you driven by a tyrant's hand?
Must we ask a mother's blessing from a strange and distant land?
Where the cruel cross of England shall nevermore be seen,
And where, please G-d, we'll live and die still wearing of the green!