Here’s the story, which no doubt will become common knowledge due to days of outrage and hand-wringing over race relations in our country by the talking heads in all our major media. It’s out of Yonkers, New York.

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The president of the city’s branch of the NAACP has landed in a pot of hot water, rather than gold, at the other end of the rainbow, after angrily calling City Council Majority Leader Liam McLaughlin a “leprechaun” at the close of a public meeting Tuesday night.

McLaughlin, at 5-foot-10, certainly does not resemble a leprechaun, the diminutive, elfish creature of Irish folklore. As an active member of the Irish-American community in Yonkers, however, the Republican 4th District councilman is not taking kindly to being called one by Karen Edmonson, the president of the Yonkers branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

“If anybody else made some type of similar remark, everybody would be calling for their head,” McLaughlin said yesterday, joining Councilman Dennis Robertson, D-3rd District, in calling for Edmonson to apologize and resign.

Edmonson, however, refused yesterday to even say the comment was derogatory.

“It’s a Halloween term. It’s nothing,” she said after being told of complaints by McLaughlin and Robertson. “I only said it because he has red hair. I mean, my boyfriend is Irish.”
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Even now Yonkerites are bracing for the requisite three-ring circus that always happens when a racial slur occurs. Reportedly, demonstrations are already in the works. P.J. O’Rourke plans to stage a wry-in. Sinead O’Connor will perform Irish protest music, publicly tear NAACP booklets, and shout “Foit thuh rill enemy!” The highlight of the week will be Sen. Ted Kennedy rabble-[ca]rousing at local pubs.