Globex Corporation Newsletter

Happy March 17th to you! Some of you will no doubt be referring to this day by a different name, I will too, it's the catholic feast day of the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick. I am not catholic, I am not Irish, I recognize the gravity of this day to those who are Irish, catholic or both, good for them. What I don't recognize is the need for all of us to celebrate. If you want to go to mass or sing a celtic song, great. If you want to use this day as a excuse to drink until you puke and act like a total ass then you've only bought into the marketing produced by the beer companies.

I love Irish beer, Guiness in particular, but any good stout like Murphy's or Boddington's. Did you ever notice that it's not green? There is no way to make beer green save adding food coloring to a keg. The weak-ass mass produced american beers really take color well and people will be swilling it down later on tonight. I can proudly say that I've never drunk a green beer and, short of the use of deadly force, never will. By the way, Killian's Irish Red isn't made in Ireland, it's produced by the Coors corporation in Golden, Colorado. You go ahead and pay that import price for it tonight if it makes your drunken irish experience more "authentic." Just remember to take your passport along next time you go to Colorado.

I don't want to be pinched because I'm not wearing green today. I don't much care for green. Maybe if I were Irish or catholic I would, but I'm not so I won't. I won't be saying "Top of the mornin' to ye!" either, though I can actually speak with a passable irish accent. I certainly won't be singing Danny Boy. I may listen to some U2, but because I like U2, not because it's March 17th.

I'm German and Lutheran. While I was in grade school the teacher never put up a bulletin board decorated with scenes from Oktoberfest. But every year I had to come into a classroom filled with green, shamrocks everywhere. I certainly didn't want the teacher to nail 95 Thesis to the front door of the classroom, that's part of my religion, it's personal. So why did I have to mention the man who brought Christianity Ireland and (fictionally) drove out all the snakes? The irish have leprechauns, we Germans have Lorelei. Both are myths. Why do you know what a leprechaun is? Why don't you know who Lorelei is? Why are we teaching irish myths in schools but not those of other cultures?

I live in a part of the country that was settled by europeans from the continent, Germans, Norwegians, Swedes, Bohemians, Czechs, etc. Yeah, there were some Irish, English, Scots, etc., but they were the minority. The state I live in doesn't have Columbus day, rather we have Native American day. I applaud that for a number of reasons. I'm not going to get into the revisionist history of how Columbus was an evil man, I applaud it because we have a lot more Native Americans in South Dakota than we do Italian Americans.

I'm not against ethnic celebrations. Our country was built by people of lots of different ethnicities, they should all be celebrated. Let's not over do it with the irish though.

.....and by the way, Oktoberfest starts in September, someone inform the beer companies......


BOJ