St. Patrick's Revisited

"Hibernia's champion saint all hail, this day your, glory sounds;
The offspring of your ardent zeal, this day your praise shall sound.
Great and glorious St. Patrick, pray for thy dear country.
Great and glorious St. Patrick, hearken to the prayers of your children."

We sang this with such gusto as we celebrated his day as children at St. Patrick's School in Troy. The Saint's likeness was and still is portrayed in stained glass above the altar of the church, and a larger than life sized statue graced the hall way at the entrance to the school auditorium.

Why did we really celebrate? St. Patrick was a hero for the many children of Ireland, and the millions who had come to America. We held him in high esteem as the greatest person ever from our heritage, a personal symbol of power, faith, and resurrection for a poor and down- trodden people.

Proudly, we embraced him and we celebrated his legendary accomplishments, and hoped for continued miracles in our day. I don't think we have been disappointed, but he (we) still has a lot of work to do.

And this is the first year that the songs will not be sung in St. Patrick's. The church was closed last June. It still was the place of worship for many, old and young. But the needs of the large suburban areas overcame the exigencies of the Catholic Church's presence in the inner city, and the parish was closed along with the others in the city. We are left with memories, a heritage, and the songs will be sung in places far and wide because of the universal presence of our favorite St. Patrick. 

Hang in there!

If a bank re-values a mortgage because it is upside down (the value of the house is less than the principal), should the bank re-value the mortgage when the principal is less than the value of the house? If a person bought a house, it is only worth less if an owner must sell for less.
If a person pays the mortgage on time, and the equity starts to build because of improvements, or better home values in an improved market, then the owner will be happy.
There is something wrong headed about re-valuing mortgages.
I bought a house twenty years ago at top dollar, $73,000. Because of the city it was in, and the possible progression of urban decay, it was later valued by the bank at about $50,000. I was trying to get out of an adjustable rate mortgage into a fixed rate at the time. I had to, and was able to come up with several thousand additional dollars to make it worthwhile for the bank to do this change. At no time was the bank ready to forgive any of the principal.
Some constraints required me to hang on to that property through a severe downturn in the home market. Eighteen years later, the market had turned around-property in that section of the city had become desirable; a few improvements had been made; and the house sold for $95,000. I had excellent use of the property through those years, had a tax and interest deduction on my income tax throughout, made some people happy, and in the end made a small profit.
So, the moral is, hang in, hang on, and relax. Tough times usually yield to better times.