Dear Mr President, No Parade

February 09, 2018

Dear Mr. President,

I never was one for parades but I suffer through them for the children.

I see you wish to put on a military parade like, Bastille Day festivities you witnessed in Paris this last July.

Bastille Day was not just about the military parade but about French Culture, a celebration of a revolution against authoritarianism.

The Bastille was a medieval fortress and prison in Paris. Many people in France associated it with the harsh rule of the Bourbon monarchy in the late 1700s. On July 14, 1789, troops stormed the Bastille. This was a pivotal event at the beginning of the French Revolution.

Today such a parade in the USA would need to march around the White House and storm it if it were to have any relevance for today.

It would be to rid ourselves of you and your ridiculous idea.

To liberate ourselves from the top down iron boot on the necks of the working class, women, the poor, immigrants, refugees and people of color.

Or do you wish to order a military parade that must salute you in mass formations, goose stepping as they pass in front of you, to give the appearance they wuv you?

I am sure you want to put our military might on display but isn't that what cowards and bullies do?

Will you have veterans march carrying crosses of our war dead, veterans in hospital beds, in wheelchairs, with shiny new and highly sophisticated prosthetic limbs leading the parade?

Will your marchers have a float with 20 to 22 caskets on display to represent the daily veteran suicides?

Will would parade the weeping mothers who have lost their sons and daughters, or have the children dressed in camouflage hiding their tears for a parent that will never return?

No! Mr. President, military parades are for dictators, tyrants and fools.

Thus, I half expect to see one but hope you think better, not to proceed.

Sincerely Yours,

Someone who wishes to see you resign from office.

 

Peace at Home, Peace Abroad

Dan Shea

VFP Board

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