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Change 'Three Little Pigs' to Be PC? Lowell Ponte In England, the London Daily Mail on Thursday reported that one school is teaching 10-year-olds a new version of "The Three Little Pigs," a tale its politically correct, culturally stupid educrats have re-written as "The Three Little Puppies" to avoid giving offense to Muslims. This is odd for several reasons. No Muslim complained or sought changes in such classroom references to pigs. A few months ago in Texas, when one neighbor of a planned Mosque threatened to hold pig races during its religious services, a Muslim explained that "we don't hate pigs. We just don't eat them." Like Jewish Kosher dietary rules, Islam's standards of purity known as Halal prohibit the eating of pork. Nobody in England ever changed "The Three Little Pigs" to avoid offending Jews, probably because almost no Jews take offense at this. But these school masters were eager to become cultural Quislings, surrendering one more piece of English values and tradition to what writer Mark Steyn in his fine book "America Alone" (Regnery Publishing) calls "creeping Sharia," the gradual imposition of Islamic law and values onto Western culture. In a similar surrender, one British bank reported ceased displaying or giving to children its traditional "piggy banks" lest Muslim neighbors, customers, and activists take offense. Chances are that the school's academics are liberals who feel guilty for centuries of British cultural, as well as economic, imperialism. For reasons of inclusiveness, ideology, and guilt, they probably want to correct England's historic wrong by dismantling Western culture, even in petty ways. But, ironically, these English educrats may have caused more offense than they prevented.
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Do they understand that dogs are regarded in many Islamic countries dogs as "unclean" because this is how the cat-loving Prophet Muhammad purportedly described dogs? "The Three Little Puppies" could be seen as far more offensive than "The Three Little Pigs," a centuries-old traditional story passed down through many English-speaking generations with no intention of insulting Muslims. But what is a Muslim to think when this innocent story is, with Muslims in mind, deliberately re-written into a story about three young, unclean dogs? A Muslim could reasonably infer that "The Three Little Puppies" is either a deliberate insult to Muslims, or that it reflects appalling ignorance of Islamic culture by the liberal English educrats who concocted it. Given that these educrats were trying to be politically correct, it's safe to assume that they are ignorant of history and culture — other people's and their own. By definition, to be a modern liberal is to be either a knave or a fool.
Knowledge, like travel, broadens and deepens our understanding of humankind. St. Patrick's Day offers an opportunity to expand such knowledge. As always, I shall wear green for St. Patrick's Day this Saturday. But, like the Irish flag itself, I shall also wear orange, the color of Northern Ireland. Those who have studied the tangled roots of Irish history understand why. Yes, orange was the color of the Ulstermen imported as Protestant occupiers of the northern counties by England's William of Orange. Most were Scots. But who are the Scots? They are Celts from the north of Ireland who around 500 A.D. crossed the narrow sea to settle Argyll and points farther north in what we now call Scotland. These Scots Irish (who also, as Sen. James Webb, D.-Va., has written, in the persons of Thomas Jefferson and many others, played a major role in shaping America) are the authentic Irish who returned from Scotland to their original homeland. But what of the green Irish, like the ancestors of John Fitzgerald Kennedy? Truth be told, Fitzgerald is not an Irish name. It is a French name brought to the Emerald Isle around 1100 A.D. by the same French-Norman-Vikings who achieved the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. So Honey Fitz, JFK, Teddy Kennedy, along with those swillers of green beer this Saturday with names like Fitzwilly, Fitzhugh, and Burke could justifiably be called fake Irish, the descendants of relatively recent French-speaking invaders and interlopers who brought these "Irish" names with them. Look back a bit farther into the mists of history and we find the mysteries of St. Patrick, who apparently was not Irish at all but Welsh or perhaps English, whatever these labels might mean. (Oxford geneticist Stephen Oppenheimer's new book "The Origins of the British: A Genetic Detective Story" [Carroll & Graf Publishers] finds that the principle ancestors of today's British and Irish, speaking a language related to Basque, arrived from Spain roughly 16,000 years ago.) In a time close to legendary King Arthur, Patrick was born around 385 A.D., the son of a Roman official. The Christian boy was at age 16 kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in Ireland, where he learned the language and culture and later as a Bishop felt destined to return to save heathen souls. Through his saintly influence, the Irish, until the potato famine of the 1840s, kept faith with a distinctly Celtic Roman Catholicism that co-mingled Christian doctrine with druidic symbols. Protestants would later claim that, for all his goodness, Patrick never succeeded in driving the serpents of paganism out of Ireland. Look back much further, into pre-history and, as geneticists have found, every Caucasian European may be descended from one of only 10 men who walked from the East or Middle East into this sparsely-settled peninsula of Asia about 40,000 years ago. These 10 were the forefathers of every German, Anglo, Saxon, Greek, Roman, Viking, Portuguese, Pole, blue-skinned Pict, and Celt — Irish and Scot. A similar handful of common ancestors sired humankind in other regions of our planet. And their descendants spread, conquered, loved, and taught their children distinctive tongues and beliefs. They developed cultures worth keeping, and tales like "The Three Little Pigs" with which to teach their children. "Make new friends, but keep the old," a children's camp song goes. It's good to learn and respect the wisdom of other cultures, but also to learn from and cherish our own.
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