St. Patrick's Day is Celebrated Well

To the Editors of The Crimson:

This letter is a response to Kristin M. Zaleskas's March 16 opinion piece, "Ireland: More Than Green Beer."

Ms. Zaleskas, self-appointed spokesperson for Irish culture in America, is apparently disappointed with both this country's image of the Irish people and our celebration of the Irish national holiday, St. Patrick's Day.

She feels that the perpetuation of the happy drunk leprechaun stereotype is equivalent to an ethnic slur, and therefore encourages the Harvard community to celebrate March 17th not by drinking beer, but by engaging in more culturally appropriate activities, such as reading Yeats or, perhaps, watching John Wayne physically drag a woman's body through the Irish countryside in "The Quiet Man." Now, how's that for "rich and beautiful Irish culture?"

The examples given above should give some idea of how ludicrous it is to propose a "more correct" way of celebrating Irish culture. But since Ms. Zaleskas insists that a mere keg of beer is inadequate to express her pride in her Irish background, I would like to remind her of the following: First, she is in the United States, not Ireland, and she cannot expect the citizens of this multicultural country, in their appreciation of a foreign culture, to meet her specific guidelines throughout their festivities. Ms. Zaleskas should be honored by the mere fact that Americans annually take a day out of their lives to celebrate her culture at all.

Second, I would like to inform Ms. Zaleskas that there are very many people who actually do celebrate Irish culture as she sees correct. For example, within this past week alone, the Harvard Irish Cultural Society has sponsored a poetry reading by Seamus Heaney, a lecture by Northern Irish politician John Hume, a presentation of the film "My Left Foot and an Irish art exhibition currently on display on the second floor of Hilles Library. In addition, traditional Irish music is broadcast every day of the year on at least one radio station in the Boston area, including Harvard's WHRB.

A large part of Ms. Zaleskas's argument deals with alcohol-related imagery and the Irish people. Despite her own objections to the strong connection in people's minds between alcohol and Irish culture, perhaps she is unaware of just how much alcohol and pubs are a part of Irish cultural traditions. This same tradition has, admittedly, led to grave problems related to alcoholism, and there has been a profound movement to curb alcohol usage throughout Ireland. But alcohol, nonetheless, is quite central to Irish life. The vast number of regional stouts and whiskeys found in Ireland attest to the great popularity of alcohol among the Irish.

Although Ms. Zaleskas's comments on Irish history and economics are accurate enough, I hope that it is clear to her by now that her critique of Americans and their celebration of Irish culture is way out of line. I am sure that the overwhelming majority of the 40 million Irish Americans in this country would agree with me as I tell Ms. Zaleskas, "We don't need you to speak for us." As for the rest of the country's Saint Patrick's Day "weekend revelers," party on! Kenneth Smith   Vice President   Harvard Irish Cultural Society