Here, reason is on holiday

How else do you explain a guy running for Boston City Council who wants to get rid of the two paid holidays exclusive to Suffolk County?

Yesterday, they commemorated the battle of Bunker Hill with a very fine parade in Charlestown. And Chris Kulikoski found out where speaking out against the status quo and powers-that-be in this town gets you: the back of the line.

"According to the order of march, I think I was supposed to be last, but I cut in front of a band, so technically I was next to last," he said.

Needless to say, Sal LaMattina, the city councilor Kulikoski is trying to unseat and who last week sponsored a resolution attacking all those goo-goos wanting to end the Suffolk County perk, was at the front of the parade.

"I don't care," Kulikoski said, shrugging. "I shook as many hands as he did."

As the parade showed, you don't have to get a paid day off to celebrate the Battle of Bunker Hill, which was a moral victory for the Colonial forces only because they killed so many Redcoats in 1775.

Let's see. So far, in their Herculean efforts to save the state from bankruptcy, the made members of the state Legislature have managed to stand there and look like statues, counting their raises while services for the poor, the blind, the disabled, and any and every class of vulnerable people have been slashed and burned. Last week, they took the barest of minimal steps toward pension reform by agreeing that serving one day in a term should not entitle them credit for a full year toward their pensions.

Marvelous.

But they won't budge on the Suffolk County holidays.

"The idea that we're laying off police officers, firefighters, and teachers when we can save $10 million by eliminating two paid holidays that are enjoyed only by public employees in Suffolk County is crazy," Kulikoski said.

He pays little mind to those who suggest that anyone who wants to stop paying to commemorate key Revolutionary War moments is something of a self-loathing American or ignorant of history. Kulikoski spent eight years in the Army before returning to the North End to run his family's market on Salem Street.

Jack Hart, the senator from South Boston, got up on the floor of the Senate a couple of weeks ago and compared the idea of eliminating Bunker Hill Day and Evacuation Day as paid holidays to getting rid of Christmas. Jackie's speech on the importance of knowing history was reminiscent of that scene in "Animal House," when John Belushi's character, Bluto, inspires his newly expelled frat brothers to go down swinging.

Jackie: "In my district, St. Patrick's Day is a very important amendment."

Bluto: "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"

Jackie: "We need to respect our history in that if we eliminate these holidays today in Suffolk County, then what's next?"

Bluto: "And it ain't over now. 'Cause when the goin' gets tough . . . the tough get goin'!"

Jackie: "Let's not be expedient here for the sake of saving a couple of dollars."

Actually, Jackie, it's $10 million, but what's $9,999,998 between friends?

The parade was over and so Chris Kulikoski went back over the North Washington Street bridge to the North End and was sitting in Caffé Paradiso sipping a Coke. Outside, some men were walking up Hanover Street, carrying a statue of St. Anthony of Padua. The statue was covered with money.

Mickey Farmusa, who is 84 years old and knows everybody, walked in, looking to trade St. Anthony pins for dollar bills. She stood before the table and smiled.

Kulikoski smiled back and pulled a wrinkled dollar bill from his pocket. He may be a political neophyte, but he isn't stupid. You can take on the establishment all you want, but you don't mess with the saints.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com