Some parades are just like others

Wienermobile. 4th of July 2022. Bedford Ohio.

The last few years, i have taken the time to visit parades. The first parade i saw, really a procession, was a St. Anthony's parade. I was a small kid. A woman, two houses away, was at her son's house. She came from Italy, and as the parade passed by she took me and my sister along. We marched at the very end for a piece.

In high school, the marching band sometimes marched in the Cleveland's St. Patrick's parade. There were only two days they allowed kids to skip school, the Indians home opener, and St. Patrick's parade. One year they were in New York City's parade. For some of Cleveland it is notable.

For a time, Cleveland's Labor Day parade was revived. I remember being in one in Lakewood, and one near Cleveland Zoo. A couple of my nieces, and nephews rode on a flatbed truck. I watched one in Parma. The plan was to rotate the location each year around the county.

outside St. Peter's on St. Patrick's 2010

Lennon Thou Art Modell 

Apt comparison of bishop to football team owner, individuals (hated, and now dead) because they took away from Cleveland, that which was beloved by Cleveland.

Then Richard Lennon came to town, and i went to see the Patrick parade.  That parade is the largest parade in Ohio.  St. Peter's is at the beginning of the parade (Superior & East 18th).  A few others, and me, stood in front of St. Peter's.  Lennon, who was bishop, was going to extinguish St. Peter's.  So the next year, some people from protesting parishes marched behind St. Patrick West Park (which was also on Lennon's list). From 2011 onward, the Polish parishes have marched in the Patrick parade, with St. Casimir in the lead, Casimir's was another of Lennon's targets. Being in the parade allows the community to see you.

I have taken fotos of Independence Day parades at Parma (horrible parade, except for the high school bands), Lakewood, Kamm's Corners, Westlake, and University Heights [click]. This year, Bedford, and this [supra] was the chief attraction.

Who should be in every Independence Day Parade: people in costume as Uncle Sam, Lady Liberty, Lady Justice, and the Spirit of '76 band. Bedford had a copy of that iconic fife and drum corps. Also, unfortunately, Bedford's parade began with a very long procession (20 minutes?) of fire trucks, police cars, and politicians of at least four suburbs. The glorification of present government used the opportunity to hijack the parade.

Tow Mater of the Cars movie

some favorite characters of children

Guru Gobind Singh Sikh Society's building is very close to where the parade marches. Many parades have religious groups in the community march.

Part of being in a parade is the exposure to the greater community.

Other religious groups marched in the parade too. There was a group of Moslems who had banners showing loyalty to the United States. What was the pleasant about the Sikhs, is they gave out snacks and drinks; and unlike some Evangelical Protestants, they did not hand out paperwork.

 

000___________________________________________________________xxx

 

Similar scenes were carried out across the land. Independence Day fell on a Monday, this year, it was easier to schedule. I looked at the day's fotos i shot, and i was not going to post a foto essay, i thought the fotos were not that special or good, i might use one in a miscellany; but then...

 

As part of being in a parade is the exposure to the greater community, it is also the greater community's opportunity to have exposure to the community. Terribly, this happened in Highland Park Illinois' parade, while we were in Bedford Ohio. Some people are evilly, mentally compromised. One young trumpster [click] saw an opportunity to kill. The street, and sidewalks were a shooting gallery. 

 

The merchants and manufacturers of death are part owners of the Republican Party. That party joins in their celebration in and of the use of that which is sometimes called a "military styled assault weapon". This is a particularly American phenomenon. These enablers of mass murder demand everyone just to get on with things, anything other than the murders and the weapons that allow them to be done in a expeditious manner. Darren Bailey is the trumpster candidate for Illinois governor, his comment on the massacre was "...so let's pray for justice to prevail, and then let's move on and let's celebrate...".

 

There are fotos of the terrorist trumpster [click] available on the internet, although the press, media, and the search engines have not made them prominent and not shown to audiences.  The press does not bring up his politics. Republicans, and their allies, will say he is mentally incompetent, or use similar verbiage. That is self-evident, and redundant—he is a trumpster, from a family of trumpsters (his father was the recent losing trumpster candidate for mayor of Highland Park). The truth is two fold: the gun culture in America is an idolatry, and the Republican Party (especially in its trumpster form) is a clear, and present danger to both democracy, and the lives of Americans.