The Parade, Part I

There’s the July 4th Parade and what it’s about abstractly and there’s the July 4th Parade and what it’s about practically, tangibly maybe. First the one, then the other. The other is the one with all the pictures.

But there’s a picture for the abstract meaning of the parade, too. Here is a guy who is what the parade is about for me. He marched in the parade, all alone, with the same sign last year, too. People where I was standing, at the end of the parade line, cheered him on some last year. Last year, we were distraught about Bush and his war and wanted it over. We were pretty enthusiastic about Obama, I guess, and thought if only he won the presidential election, that war would be over. I was struck that no one was marching with him last year, but happy to hear encouragement, including mine, from the onlookers. Right, we were thinking, let’s end that war.

But now it’s this year. Same guy, same sign, same war. I was standing in the same place, right at the end of the parade. He was still alone, but this year, other than me, no one called out with approval to him from among the many people who lined the sidewalk at APA and Tyee. That war is over, I guess. Obama ended it, must have, sometime when I wasn’t watching.

But this year, I was ready to go out and walk with him if only we weren’t at the end of the parade. Whoever you are (and why don’t I know who the lone anti-war marcher is here in this little place?), get in touch with me next year if this issue still has to be addressed and I’ll get my own sign, just like yours, and walk with you, here in my own community, and hope my neighbors, too, will endorse supporting the troops by ending the war.

This guy’s willingness to get up and say/stand behind what he thinks is what the parade is about in the first sense. About our caring enough to object to government actions that we think are wrong. Still not such a popular idea in a lot of other places, and that alone gave meaning to this July 4 parade to me. But maybe we all should cheer him—on just this occasion, at least--for his willingness to speak out, to make manifestly real what the 4th of July is about.

Another view of this matter (i.e., ending the war) is expressed here by The Medium Lobster.