Memorial Day Parades

[FFLieu 70]

So this past weekend was Memorial Day Weekend, and not only does that signify the un-official start of the summer, it's also the un-official start of parade season. I was in two parades yesterday with my EMS squad, one in Freehold, NJ and the other in neighboring Englishtown, NJ. The Freehold parade was nice since it's more or less the Monmouth County parade, and departments from all around the county marched through the center of town (for those not too familiar, Freehold is kind of like Smalltown, USA,) and up past the court house. The Englishtown parade is a little more quaint, as it's a shorter distance and stops at two memorials that lie on the parade route. Personally, I think that parade is nicer since it honors our past and present veterans, and really takes the true meaning of Memorial Day to heart.

However, I saw something yesterday that honestly turned my stomach. I was marching behind a fire department from a neighboring town which is in the next county over. They sent a Chief's car as well as an engine. There were four individuals inside the engine and another four ON THE TOP HOSEBED who were casually drinking Miller Lites as the chauffeur had to cut the truck on an angle several times throughout the parade to avoid hitting such things as tree branches that would have ordinarily cleared the top of the truck but for the fact that there were four idiots riding on top. To make it worse, while there was a small ceremony occurring up front at the first monument, a parade-goer who must have been an acquaintance of someone on the truck, came over with two six-packs, passed one through the window and then gave the other to one of the individuals on top. Now I know that this issue has been raised several times before, and there have been threads about it in the past, but this, to me, is a serious issue. Not only is it an attention grabber to see people riding in a place where you wouldn't ordinarily see them, but it's stupid - not to mention illegal - to consume alcohol in that particular instance. Compounding that, it's disrespectful to the veterans and all the other parade-goers, and I was absolutely appalled, especially since one of the people on the truck tried to justify it by saying that it was "only one can, which is a heck of a lot better than the keg that they wanted to bring."

We all need to have some common sense when we're at a public event like that. We may be members of the community who volunteer or who serve as part of a career or both, but we all must remember that we're driving around in a huge billboard that's owned by the taxpayers, not us. Whatever goes on at the firehouse is our business because that's our place; but whenever we're in public, we represent the public and their intrinsic trust of us as the people who they call in an emergency. And I know I might be ranting a little bit, but I figured that it would be better for me to come on here and vent a bit than to say something to the Chief and put my foot in my mouth.

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

It is my opinion that the true, real spirit of Memorial Day Parades has been forgotten. We spend more time worrying about parades, vacation and BBQs than we do actually remembering the lives sacrificed in the name of our liberty, honor and freedom. This example of ineptness, negligence and liability only further proves how we have totally lost sight of what it has cost us as a nation to get to this point.

Maybe next year instead of going to my parade and then enjoying the BBQ I am going to go to Arlington National Burial Ground and actually remember this year.