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Sharing the American Dream
“Being Irish manifests itself through my efforts to fight for justice.”
– Patricia O’Neill, Legal 100 honoree.
This issue is a feast of Irish-Americana. There’s something to suit every
taste and even the pickiest reader. Some history, some humor, some of who we
are today.
There’s the inspirational songbird Kelli O’Hara, whose Irish ancestors
settled in Oklahoma during the Land Rushes, and Bill Maher who was born in
New York to an Irish father and a Jewish mother.
There’s even a salute to the Year of the Potato.
No doubt, what Bill Maher has to say will find agreement with some and give
others apoplexy. But hey, there’s nothing like a little diversity of opinion
to stir the soup.
And today’s Irish are nothing if not diverse. The old stereotype of the
Irish, confined to neighborhoods, church-going citizens in public service
jobs, does not apply.
Nowadays, A Portrait of Irish America is more likely to include a photo of
Eileen Collins, the space shuttle commander, as it is an Irish laborer.
We have spread out across the U.S. and have found success in every segment
of American society. Yet we still carry the traits and characteristics of
hardscrabble ancestors. Handed down from generation to generation, is a love
of politics, education, the church, and yes, a good argument.
Maher has inherited the mantle of the late great contrarian George Carlin
who said, “As long as I have sound ideas, a sound underpinning of argument
and analysis, then there’s nothing I can’t or shouldn’t talk about.”
In this issue Bill Maher sits down with Kelly Carlin-McCall, George’s
daughter, to discuss among other things, God (he has a new movie out,
Religulous), the state of America, and his Irish father.
He’s not “proud” to be Irish, but he’s not “ashamed” either.
Like George Carlin, he thinks that it’s ridiculous to be proud of something
that you had no control over, but at the same time he’s glad to have
inherited his father’s humor which he says has helped him in his choice of
career.
Humor is the great leveler. It’s a great communication skill. It’s an Irish
specialty, honed on the horns of adversity as a way of coping. And God
knows, we Irish have had enough grievances to make us very funny indeed.
“Humor” was also a way to keep us down. The stupid Paddy jokes, as told by
the English, the offish cartoons in Harper’s magazine, which the publishers
now ruefully admit were “some of the worst humor ever to reach print.”
But who’s laughing now?
As writer Pete Hamill says, “The Irish won all the late rounds.”
We are top of the heap. But the slurs haven’t gone away. They have just been
redirected – today they are aimed at the newest immigrants, in particular
the Latinos, and it’s ugly.
“I’ve heard things like, ‘We don’t want to send our kids back to school
because we’re afraid people don’t like Mexicans,’” said Mayor Thomas O’Neill
of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania.
O’Neill was speaking in the aftermath of the recent brutal beating that
resulted in the death of Luis Ramirez, an undocumented immigrant. Four
teenage members of the high school football team have been charged in his
death. One of whom, sad to say, is Colin Walsh – Irish, at least in name.
Would Colin have raised his boot had he been more aware of his own history?
Shenandoah is coal country where the “papes,” the Irish Catholic famine
immigrants, labored and lived under ethnic slurs that followed them out to
the coal fields. They were given the worst jobs, bringing the coal to the
surface where children as young as seven worked on the slag heaps.
Back then (it’s not that long ago – just two lifespans) not only were the
Irish miners discriminated against, they were unprotected by the law. A
congressional act of February 27, 1865 authorized the formation of private
police forces, the armed Coal and Iron Police who were brutal in suppressing
any labor organization.
Not far from where Ramirez was killed, on December 9, 1875, Charles
O’Donnell, a miner who was thought to be involved in the labor movement, his
daughter and young son were murdered by an armed vigilante group. No one was
arrested for the crime.
Knowing our history gives us a deeper understanding of who we are, and it
should be the key to understanding the struggle of others.
We triumphed through hard work, education, the church, politics, and
military service. Most immigrants are only looking for the same
opportunities.
The Irish-American story is an inspiration to those struggling today. Now
that we have a platform, we can bring a voice of reason to the debate.
Here’s one fact that is often hidden: the economic contribution of the
undocumented. According to a New York Times story, Social Security receives
up to seven billion a year from undocumented immigrants – money they can
never reclaim.
The American dream is not ours alone. We cannot separate ourselves from our
past or pull the ladder up after us.
Mortas Cine.
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