St. Patrick's Day Discrimination

Relax… the title is only half deceiving! I am not going to write about the type of discrimination that you are thinking of- not in this post. Now that that is out of the way, I do have to preface this piece with a couple of very important statements: 1. I LOVE, love, love St. Patrick’s Day. I love the sense of community at the events; love learning new things and as many of my friends can attest, I happen to really love Irish men! 2. I love the city that I live in. Chicago is a wonderful, beautiful city and although I complain about the politics and my neighbors (because they are garbage can stealing douche bags- I digress), I wouldn’t trade Chicago for anything right now. I bought a house here, my (limited) social life is here and there is always something to do, see, or complain about! Seriously, I love this city. I could have chosen to live anywhere… With that said: How pissed am I (and a few thousand others) that the South Side of Chicago no longer has a St. Patty’s Day Parade?? In a word: VERY.

Here is the deal with the south side: we get treated like the red headed step child (all apologies to red headed step children reading this). We don’t get grocery stores like the north side, we don’t have baseball groupies like the north side (that is actually a good thing) and we don’t get the amenities of the north side- the el stops at 95th street, but the city extends to 132nd Street, our bus routes are the first to get cut, and out Metra stations need some serious refurbishment. Add to that scenario, the organizers of the parade, who were backed by the city, decided that there would be no south side parade because of excessive public drunkenness and lewd behavior. Hmmmmmm…W.T.F????? What exactly happens at ALL St. Patrick Day Parades? Including the one downtown? Ah yes, I believe there is a pub crawl or two. I believe that there are always a few lost, drunk souls. I believe that as long as there are people who will gather outside in sub 40 degree weather, dressed in green concoctions, shaking shamrocks in your face and drinking green beer at obscenely early hours, someone is going to be drunk. SO.WHAT???? I will throw in the following sentence because I am not (repeat NOT) a fan of the northside baseball team- Wrigley is a walking talking pub crawl- every home game- always. And you know what doesn’t happen? They don’t cancel home games. Hell, those raunchy fans are hardly reigned in. Yet, one day a year the south side cannot have a parade????

I am miffed, discouraged, and all around disgruntled. When will we get some equality on the South Side??? Now I will sound like a cubs fan… Maybe next year.

Miss Mox