Roses Are Red, etc.

I'm wondering how Valentine's Day has managed to escape the wrath of the holiday nazis: irate parents groups, religious zealots, and political trouble-makers. After all, it commemorates the death of an early Christian martyr, and yet somehow it manages the modern-day miracle of bringing together Christians of every stripe, Jews, Muslims, Janists, Bhuddists, Coptics, Wiccans, and everybody else in the name of love. Interestingly, no one is sure which of the three possible eponymous martyred Saint Valentines we're celebrating, nor when and why roses and heart-shaped chocolates got into the act. Let's enjoy it now, while it lasts, until some atheist dad comes along and throws a hissy fit that's heard all the way to the Supreme Court because little Samantha is forced to suffer in silence while her first-grade classmates exchange cards that begin, "Rose are red, violets are blue."