This past Monday, New York had perfect weather for its annual
St. Patrick’s Day parade — temperatures in the mid-60s and sunny,
the promise of spring at last arriving after a harsh winter. But
with the prospect of imminent conflict with Iraq in the air, it was
not your typical St. Patrick’s Day. Reports indicate that at some
points on the parade route, as many American flags were flying as
Irish, along with banners expressing support for the coming battle
against Saddam Hussein. Even the annual feud between ILGO (Irish
Lesbian and Gay Organization) and the Ancient Order of Hibernians
(organizers of the parade) over ILGO’s desire to march in the
parade seemed to take a back seat. Ethnic parades in America have
become increasingly polluted with the politics of grievance. But
such posturing seems terribly trite now, even in a culture that has
turned self-involvement into a creed.
I am an American of Irish descent, which is very different from
being Irish. I enjoy the Clancy Brothers and cold beer, and there
was a time when I intended to read Finnegans Wake. Growing
up, I rooted for Notre Dame. That is about the extent of my Irish
identity. I could never wrap my mind around The Troubles in
Ireland, for example. They were so primal, so demonstrative of the
blood feuds of the Old World. There is a chasm between that kind of
fixation on the past and the outlook of average Americans, large
numbers of whom do not recall what century our own Civil War was
fought in. It’s hard to foster a grudge when you can’t remember
what it is, despite the best efforts of the intellectual class to
remind us.
With the exception of the Puerto Rican Day parade, St. Patrick’s
Day is my least favorite day in New York City. Both days share
multiple unappealing traits — enormous crowds, rampaging drunks,
gratuitous noise. On the scale of unpleasantness, the Puerto Rican
Day parade edges out St. Patrick’s because of the habit young
Puerto Rican males have of throwing firecrackers out of their cars
while blasting the stereo system. With St. Patrick’s, you get
tottering bands of drunks on the sidewalks. They are generally slow
moving, and so the element of surprise is much less as long as you
watch where you’re stepping, if you know what I mean.
The most unwelcome trait of ethnic parades for me, though, is
their very reason for being — the focus on ethnicity. In 2003,
with the most multi-ethnic culture in world history, it seems
strange to still be celebrating tribal origins in America.
Particularly for a group like the Irish, which has long since
assimilated into the cultural fabric, what, exactly, is the point
of these productions? Why this persistent need to wave the banner
of bloodlines? However benign their intentions, ethnic parades seem
very Old Europe to me.
Another reason I dislike ethnic days in contemporary America is
that we are already awash in ethnic loyalties. What we need a
little more of is the older, overarching loyalty to country.
But for a generation now, the United States has been reluctant
to ask for loyalty from its immigrants. The INS considers new
arrivals “customers” as opposed to potential citizens, emphasizing
services instead of responsibilities. The goal of many new
immigrants is not to become American, but to resist assimilation.
At the same time, they make demands on our institutions to
recognize and cater to this desire — from services in their native
language to vast overhauls of educational content — and our
institutions have acceded to these demands in a thousand ways,
large and small. To many well-intentioned people, such deference
seems harmless.
But war has a way of making us pay for even our most benign
delusions. Last week came yet another news story illustrating the
price America is paying for its long and poisonous romance with
identity politics. An Islamic FBI agent refused to tape his
interviews with terrorist suspects because it was supposedly
against his religion to record a fellow Muslim. In another age, he
might have discontinued his pursuit of a position with the FBI,
thereby maintaining his integrity as an American and a Muslim. But
today, no such conflict pertains for him — he is an Islamist
first, an American second (if that).
Before September 11th, conservatives were voices in the
wilderness about the issue of multiculturalism, derided as bigots
or alarmists. Since then, more people are listening. Of course, the
issue has been there a long while, nurtured by the cultural
currents of the 1960s. The radicals sought to invert the old
hierarchy of loyalty, which placed American identity above whatever
one’s small-group membership might be — most commonly ethnicity,
race, or religion. They succeeded wonderfully well, as any review
of the curricula at our most esteemed universities will
indicate.
The result is a population less bound by the bonds of country,
and more inclined to pledge loyalty to their own peer group. Now
that the country is threatened domestically, in so small part
because of the collapse of assimilation, some attention is being
paid to the problem. But the damage has already been immense, and
no one can say with any confidence that subsequent generations will
be able to contain it, let alone reverse it.
I remember discussing ethnicity as a kid in school. Someone
would say, “I’m 50 percent Irish, 50 percent Italian, 100 percent
American.” I would reply, “I’m 75 percent Irish, 25 percent English
and German, 100 percent American.” Forget our dubious math and note
the loyalties. They came from somewhere — family, school —just as
today’s inverted loyalties have traceable sources (media and
academia, to name a few).
So I was heartened to read the reports of the increased presence
of patriotic symbols at this year’s St. Patrick’s parade. However
assimilated the Irish may be, it is appropriate to have reminders
about where one’s primary allegiances lie. My favorite St.
Patrick’s Day song remains “Three Cheers for the Red, White and
Blue.”
I’ll even hold out some hope that the Puerto Rican Day Parade
this year will have a more generous helping of American flags. And
maybe the young men will go easy on the fireworks, too. After all,
they can always use them for the Fourth of July.
