Welcome to this Sunday’s Third Degree: Weekly Interrogations on matters public and private that force thinking and response. Today we target: Insight

  • Does historian Thomas Cahill, famous for his “hinges of history” series swing open a door and provide insight in his book “How the Irish Saved Civilization?”
  • Did Ireland become the “Isle of Saints and Scholars,” a beacon in the dark ages of European barbarism because of escaped, six-year, Irish slave, young English/Roman, Maewyn Succat?
  • Did slave become monk/missionary/scholar, now named Patrick, go back, as Bishop of Ireland, and later, by popular recognition, a non-canonized, Saint?
  • Providing an intellectual and spiritual bridge to medieval times, did Patrick and his followers, with such insight and action, literally save western civilization?
  • Should insight this weekend, or ever, be couched in crazy, cultural appropriation or deceiving DEI expressions, or can we all be staunch Irish now in E Pluribus Unum America?
  • Shall we drink to that because, as reported, Saint Patrick himself enjoyed a full and generous pour?
  • Drinking in some other ‘facts’, did St Paddy’s robes of blue turn green by popular choice in the 17th century?
  • Why did the shamrock assume theological importance?
  • Were the snakes banished but two legged types would continue to bite over the years?
  • Not just in emerald Ireland?
  • Beginning in colonial times, did Irish emigration really take off in the mid 1800’s spurred on by famine and political upheaval?
  • With nearly 10% of the American population now claiming Irish ancestry (2021 census), was assimilation an easy chore?
  • Is immigrant assimilation a recurring and hard story that often takes a generation or two of bootstrap tugging before breaking into daylight?
  • If assimilation is not a respected American aim, what does the future hold for national cohesiveness and will? Insight needed or obvious?
  • With public confidence in the Federal government at all-time lows (below 20%–down from over 75% in the 60’s), what caused the change?
  • Do we get the government we want or deserve?
  • In what direction are domestic and international policies and results headed?
  • Everything hunky dory?
  • What about choice, democratic accountability? Since Gerrymandering destroys choice, must we demand four sided districts (roughly 750,000 people per) with no divisive carve outs for race, ethnicity, economics or politics? Why?
  • Since Presidential choice is limited by party choice, how will you decide on what’s best for you, your family and the nation?
  • What insight is required, to save the world’s last best hope, American civilization? Time to get rid of snakes again?
  • Is insight then, don’t slither?

Socrates reminds: “The unexamined life is not worth living. The actions and answers are yours.