St. Patrick’s Day parade shows evolving identity

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2016/03/19/identity-changes/qVfDzeUbkQyx8K3G8DYYBM/story.html



The scene on West Broadway during last year’s parade.

St. Patrick’s Day parade shows evolving identity
By Kevin Cullen Globe Columnist March 19, 2016

I suppose the fact that, this year, they were arguing about the route of the St. Patrick’s Day parade in South Boston, as opposed to who marches in it, amounts to progress.

Up until last year, it was a big deal that gay people were not allowed to express their sexual identity alongside their ethnic identity. Now that bridge has been crossed and there’s no going back.

It is tempting, and maybe even a little bit true, to suggest that the fury parade organizers expressed after Mayor Marty Walsh and Police Commissioner Bill Evans tried to shorten the route was a subconscious reaction to seeing, and being unable to control, so much change in their neighborhood.

~snip~

Now the only ones barred from marching in a parade organized by veterans are other veterans, veterans who identify more with peace than war.