BUT WE'RE TOTALLY DIFFERENT THAN THEM...:

Bishop won't present award (JEANETTE DeFORGE, March 03, 2006, The Republican)

The St. Patrick's Parade Committee will suspend its long-standing tradition of having the Roman Catholic bishop present its highest award after learning that the honoree supports abortion rights.

Thomas J. Ridge, who served from 2001 to 2005 as the nation's first chief of homeland security, still is slated to receive this year's John F. Kennedy Award, which honors someone of Irish heritage for distinguished achievement.

But, when Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell of the Springfield Diocese voiced his objections to Ridge, the parade committee agreed that its president, David J. O'Connor, will make the presentation. [...]

The award to Ridge is not the only Holyoke parade controversy this year.

Another focuses on Northern Ireland political leader Gerry Adams, president of the Sinn Fein party, who is due to march in the parade.

Sinn Fein, the political arm of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, was a key player in talks that brought an end to sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.

But British authorities still maintain that Adams also was sercretly a leader of the Irish Republican Army, which waged a decades-long campaign of violence aimed at ending British control of Northern Ireland so it could be united with the Republic of Ireland.

Adams was invited by U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield.

Imagine if an Arab-American group had invited Yassir Arafat to march in its parade?

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 7, 2006 4:25 PM