Got your green on?

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

Yes, there’s a lot of stuff in the news these days: Political turmoil, social unrest, war, divisiveness…rappers dissing each other — but there is one question we must all come together to answer once and for all…

Does having green eyes count for not getting pinched on St.

Patrick’s Day or not?

I must know! I have a wife and daughter with green eyes and they insist that they simply must go un-pinched due to that fact. I say it is unfair! unfair, I tell you!

Bur for real, though, I’ve always found St. Patrick’s Day a perfectly acceptable, albeit mostly meaningless holiday. I mean, it falls into that category of holidays that don’t really “count” for anything as far as stuff like you don’t get our of school or off work for it, and the banks are still open and the mail still runs.

See VIEWPOINT, page A6 VIEWPOINT

From page A4

Sort of like Halloween or Valentine’s Day. It’s mostly (for grown folks) just a chance to drink green beer and party and wear their “Kiss me, I’m Irish” shirts or pin-on buttons.

I suppose it might be a little more of a bigger deal if you really are Irish… or Catholic… or from Boston. But really, it’s real purpose (the celebration of St. Patrick, Bishop of Ireland, died on this day in 461 A.D., and he, accodring to tradition, “drove the snakes out of Ireland.” How that eventually translated into leprechauns, four-leaf clovers and pinching folks who forgot to throw on their green polo or tie a green ribbon in their hair getting pinched, I can not say.

Does the pinching signify that you’ve been “bitten” by a snake or something? In any event, I’ve already got my Green Lantern t-shirt ready to put on before going out in public. But seriously, though, about the green eyes…