A PARADE OF SHAME

An extravaganza of hypocrisy

When Dwight Eisenhower was asked if the United States should have a military parade, he responded this way:

"Absolutely not. we are the pre-eminent power on Earth. For us to try and imitate what the Soviets are doing in Red Square would make us look weak.”

Our power doesn’t lie in our ability to destroy anyone or anything. Our power lies in our ability to help people live better lives. And that’s why what’s happening these days is so deeply disempowering. We’re seeing a perversion of the values that indeed did make America great.

Ah, what we could have done over the last fifty years to expand people’s opportunities. Yet instead we worked so steadily to diminish them. Deflecting attention onto a military parade that will cost taxpayers $25M to $45 is obscene, when the government literally took food from the mouths of hungry children because they say we waste too much money. This parade will not be a celebration of our military; it will be a celebration of our war machine. The arms manufacturers. What in DC is called “The Blob.” Those children, and our veterans, be damned.

Does it have to be this way? No. And on the other side of this twisted era, I pray that it will not be.

Let’s be creative and imagine what America could be. Let’s say the President had said, “My fellow Americans, in honor of th 250th anniversary of our nation’s military we’re going to do something very special!”

I think people would have said, “Okay, go on….”

Then he could have said, “In honor of the incredible service and sacrifice of many generations of American military personnel, so many of whom have given their lives for this country, we are now establishing a special 250th Military Anniversary Fund. It will reward this generation of America’s military, plus every one in perpetuity, with the guarantee that no U.S. military veteran will ever be homeless, lack world-class healthcare, or world class training and workforce development. This special $25 million fund, which will be guided in its mission by a Board of Veterans, will reflect the gratitude this nation feels for our men and women in uniform.”

That is the kind of policy that speaks to the angels of our better nature. It’s the kind of thing that unites us. It expresses America’s goodness and decency. It’s something that would have brought us together instead of tearing us apart the way the nation will be on Saturday.

The parade will celebrate a multi-billion dollar business conglomerate and a billionaire who sees value in little else. Trump said he celebrates veterans but has taken so much from them; has said he respected our military command then tore its leadership to shreds. Let us not be fooled by this extravaganza of hypocrisy.

Through the actions of DOGE, we have done much to betray our veterans this year. Instead of making the parade about them, we’re making it about President Trump’s birthday and a celebration of the military industrial complex. At this point we spend almost one billion dollars a year buying all that equipment you will see on the streets of DC. Let’s just hope that when all those tanks roll into town, there’s then a plan to roll them back out. My greatest fear is that there will not be, and all this was just a ruse to get them there. Our President experiences obvious delight at the thought of militarizing the streets of America.

I read it’s going to rain hard in DC tomorrow. I don’t think God spits exactly, but I do think nature talks.