The grand military parade that President Trump has requested will be held on Veteran’s Day, November 11, 2018. I’m not sure how I feel about this. How about you? Music, marching, celebration are universal in their appeal. It’s the weaponry and artillery that bring out national pride in some and repel others. Let’s talk about it for a second.
As a child, I can recall every May1 being “May Day”-a day when the Soviets paraded their weaponry and armor through Moscow’s Red Square with great pride. It was all over the evening news each year. I loathed May Day because it seemed to me as a kid that Russia was always trying to one-up the USA. The yearly parades were there to show us their Soviet muscle. I didn’t know that the Russian people were starving and that they didn’t live in houses like we did or have the amenities that we had. I just knew they were the “bad ass” of the eastern bloc countries.
So, when President Trump announced that he wanted to honor the military by having a parade in the nation’s capital, I was thinking, “Why? Why should we “show our stuff” when the world already knows the worst place to be is across from the fox hole from an American soldier. Seems to me that when you are the world’s finest, you don’t need to show off. You just are the best. Mostly, I didn’t want to be like the old Soviet Union. They were like the Wizard of Oz when the curtain was pulled back. All show. No go. I don’t want my nation to be like that.
Some would argue that the expense of such a display of arms is wasteful. Money could be spent elsewhere. However, I got to thinking that our military is worth applauding. They are an all -volunteer force, doing things for me that I will never have to do. They are worth it.
I’m still wrestling with it but I want to honor the US military—something that hasn’t been done nationally in a long time. Super Bowl fly- overs are great and so are airshows. Parades are wonderful but this would be a can’t miss event type of parade. It would be great to rally our nation in something that unites rather than divides us.
What is the Common Sense Civics and Citizenship thing to do? What say you?
