How about putting celebratory parades on hold until the wars are over

[soupkitchen]

In the light of the event at FT. Hood yesterday, a ticker tape parade today on Broadway honoring the Yankees seems tone deaf and macabre. Like having an upbeat parade in Dallas, honoring the Cowbody cheerleaders the day after 9-11. This from a resident of the New York metropolitan area.

Today should be a day of mourning and reflection, not of chest thumping and glorifying.

Now some will argue the two events have nothing to do with each other, oople de, oople dah, life goes on bra, but that's my ultimate point; the burdens of this war are being borne by only a portion of our society. Not only are most citizens not immediately effected by the war, but they are completely oblivious to what soldiers and their families are enduring.

Ironically, this allows even more and more of the burdens to be placed upon those willing to bear them. But then, thanks to GW no sacrifice has ever been asked of the rest of us. It's like the people who don't believe in free lunches believe in free wars.

But, what can we do? Maybe only symbolic things like forgoing chest thumping until all the troops are home. Good taste, or just an appreciation of how Texans too mourned the loss of the World Trade Center, would have postponed today's Parade. But, let's say we adopted a national policy of not holding Championship parades during war time: Would this not force people to at least remember, from time to time, that there actually are wars going on; that when a child asks his father if there is going to be a parade after his home team wins a championship, the father by saying, " No, Athletes are not our important heroes during war time." will instill in the child a sense that wars should never be taken lightly.

Certainly, not as lightly as our wars are being taken today.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Considering how often we are at war, the parades would have about an hour to march.

[T Wolf]

2. It is a "strength" of Amerika that we can go on with our lives, no matter what disappointing

news shows up on our teevee.

Don't rain on the Yankees parade just because something bad happened somewhere. And I say this as a Phillies fan.

[piratefish08]

3. They're discussing fucking BASEBALL in congress today.

Our priorities are fucked up.