President Trump wants a military parade, so Mr. Trump is staging a parade.
It’s scheduled for Nov. 10 to commemorate the eve of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when World War I ended.
While America has reconciled the costs of that armistice and practically every one since, the costs of the parade are still being penciled in. Estimated costs are as low as $10 million and as high as $30 million.
Our military, though, always gets its money — so, back to the parade.
For one, the precise route of the parade is being still penciled in, too. But you can bet your last tallied D.C. and state sales-tax dollar that the parade will be visible from the Capitol along the western side of Pennsylvania Avenue to near the White House on the other side, where views of the Potomac River and the land of monuments are glorious.
If that route sounds familiar, recall that presidential inaugural parades follow that route, pretty much keeping the crowds and security measures contained.
The armed forces parade will be different, circa 2018: There will be angry men and feisty women, antifa, Black Lives Matter, the usual generations-old groups and generic people who are simply mad as hell and don’t want to take anything, including Donald Trump, anymore.
Those are the folks who are being weeded out as you read this.
Those are the folks law enforcers have to keep an eye on.
And because they come to the nation’s capital and the Capitol to stage their demonstrations, local and federal authorities are going to be flooded with protest requests. There’s little reason to be surprised if anti-Vietnam War protesters want to be recognized (their long hair shorn as they quietly, though illegally, pass the joint).
The military parade, however, isn’t about war. It’s about peace.
It’s about saluting the brave men and women who put their lives and freedom on the line so their descendants (yours and mine) can enjoy liberty.
It’s about honoring women such as Florence Green, a Londoner who served in the Women’s Royal Air Force and was the last surviving WWI veteran from any country. She joined the RAF at 17 years old in September 1918, and worked in the officers’ airfield mess hall. Green died Feb. 4, 2012, — 15 days shy of her 111th birthday.
You and your family might be more aligned with athletes and fans who no longer want to stand when the national anthem is played. Well, as you take a knee or walk away, recall what took place over here and over there, and take a moment to acknowledge that they stood on our behalf, before they became centenarians and have to use wheelchairs.
If you don’t want to honor America’s true warriors, don’t spoil the memorial salutes for everybody else. That would be ungrateful, too.
• Deborah Simmons
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