Mountain, North Dakota just celebrated its 115th Icelander Day. The home county paper carries an article and pictures of the parade, tractor pull, dance, etc. We English-Irish do not celebrate our heritage very much or to this extent some 140 years after homesteading occurred on the Dakota prairie.
I have mixed feelings about white ethnic groups or any ethnic group celebrating their history, their culture, their language and their tradition.
First, we need all Americans to individuate, so that is the primary function and obligation in life. While enjoying our heritage and past, we must realize that we are Americans first, individualists first, and then identify with our ethnic group afterwards.
Second, we should revel in our heritage and ethnicity, but not to the extreme of hating other racial and ethnic groups, seeking to attack them, or thwart them in any way. We must celebrate their heritages, or at least tolerate them.
Third, ethnic groups must not start feuding over money, power, values and women. Most wars and strife are initiated by ethnic group rivalries. Individualists would be peaceful, cooperative, tolerant of others. Ethnic groups fail at this too often.
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