I enjoy Juneau’s Celebration parade with its many clans dancing in regalia. I love Juneau’s Fourth of July parade, with the Juneau Marching Band, the colorful Filipino group with drummers and xylophone and feathered costumes, the Shriners driving their tiny cars, the pets, and parents and bicycles all dressed up.
But I hate the idea of the giant military parade in Washington, D.C. On Saturday, June 14, President Trump’s birthday, he is showcasing every type of deadly military weapon that can be attached to wheels or flown overhead. American taxpayers are paying for this $44 million extravaganza.
If the parade consisted instead of marching enlisted men and women and our veterans, I’d be cheering for them.
Images of military parades are all too common. Authoritarians like Mussolini, Hitler, Putin and Kim Jung Un favor these menacing displays with goose-stepping soldiers. There are two audiences for these costly military displays: the larger world and local citizens. The message is the same “I’m armed and dangerous. Beware.”
I applaud the parade that celebrates the diverse people of this country, our arts, our libraries and museums, our schools, and our theaters — in short, our communities.
Odette Edgar
Juneau