"Hail To Thee....Old Ivy League....Poison Ivy League"

               When I was a kid I had my own ivy plant. I couldn't tell you what fascinated me about it....maybe it was because it continued to grow....I couldn't kill it if I tried.....and it always remained green. To this day I....we....have an ivy in the house. Decades before I ever heard the name John Harvard.....or understood anything about how Harvard came into being....I was in awe of Harvard University....of the Ivy League of course....for that's where JFK went to college....and all of us Catholics loved that man.
               The honeymoon that my wife and I choose was up through the Poconos....across Rhode Island into Massachusetts....and then the Cape....Falmouth to be specific....Hyannis and Martha's Vineyard....after a few days down through Boston....and on across Massachusetts and New York....and up into Canada.....Niagara Falls to be specific.....but while in Boston we had to visit Harvard. Even a few years earlier than that.....while at Pitt....they offered a three day trip to Harvard....(for $100)....to a Peace And Conflict Studies conference. Well that would not have drawn me but Harvard did. I went on that bus trip with two friends....spent an evening at the pub that JFK was said to spend his time at....caused havoc at the dorms that we stayed in....and came home. I saw Love Story while on R&R in Sydney....because it revolves around Harvard. 
                Elvis was my big passion as a kid. I sent him a letter....and got a response from Col. Tom Parker's secretary. I can probably sing along with every one of Elvis's movie songs....right up to 1964's Roustabout....which had a song called....Poison Ivy League. I could sing every word to you now. Are you thrilled with the exciting life that I led.....hello....are you still there?
                Anyway....as you are aware of....there are protests at a number of Ivy League schools. Don't let them fool you....these are not....'let the killing stop'.....protests.....but....'let the killing begin'.....rallies. 
                Ivy was a prominent plant in Palestine....used in wreaths....and as described in the apocryphal book of Maccabees....a plant that the Jews had to wear....in the temple....to honor the Greek god Dionysius....(Bacchus to the Romans.)  It's has been called a....a climbing plant....that strangles everything that it entwines itself around. 
                My wife and I took a trip last July to Princeton University....another Ivy....and probably the most prominent today....of which Jonathan Edwards was once its president....and is buried right there in the town cemetery.
                No....the Ivies are not what they once were. In fact they are the opposite. In 2001 my wife and son and I were in England....and took the train for a day trip to Cambridge. I remember walking into Emmanuel College....where John Harvard attended....turning to my left....and while walking up the steps to the second floor....there on the landing....was a statue of Buddha!