The World According to Oatney

St. Patrick's Day

Today, whether the world understands it or not, we celebrate the man with a vision to bring the message of Christianity to Ireland. The Irish have in turn brought the faith to so much of the rest of the world. Our own heritage as a State and a nation have forever been impacted and our history changed because of Irish and Gaelic influence. Our politics have even been impacted. The English are not a people who are known to have a problem with authority and have a tradition of polite deference, and other ethnic groups who settled our area in the early days, such as the many German-Americans who settled all over the country (including East Tennessee), come from a similar tradition. There isn't anything wrong with that, of course, but whose traits won out in the end? Both the Irish and the Scots are traditionally known for distrust of authority, have an extremely strong aversion to being told what to do, tend to be extremely protective of family members and close friends-almost to the point of nosiness (some of the old timers still call this "clannish"), and if you don't like the way everyone else does it, you can go off and do it your own way.

Labels: Conservatism, Faith, Holy Mother Church, Humor, Local politics, Tennessee politics

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 2:32 PM