For the last several years, organizers have attempted to hold a Veterans parade, usually the Saturday before the Nov. 11 observance of Veterans Day.
This noble effort was started a few years ago; but, it just hasn’t taken off.
Every year, a sparse crowd gathers downtown as veterans of all ages and from all wars march through the town. Its actually kind of embarrassing to see the lack of attendance at the event, and I certainly would hate to think the veterans participating might think the community doesn’t care.
Because, that’s not the case. This community is a very patriotic community that takes its military seriously and its war veterans seriously. We are the home of an outstanding military training base, and so many members of our community support veterans in many different ways.
Perhaps there is a little bit of an over-saturation of veteran-affiliated events, and when people pick and choose what to support, the actual Veterans parade gets the short end of the stick.
Look at other veteran-type events that get a lot of support. The Memorial Day remembrance at Woodring Wall of Honor gets a lot of support. Anytime we have a local group deploying, our community comes out to wish them well and Godspeed. When we have the unfortunate loss of life of a military member, our community wraps its arms around the families and friends.
Some have complained there isn’t enough publicity about the event. Well, I don’t believe that’s the case because our newspaper writes stories about it and the local radio stations do their part to make the event known. Some have said there needs to be fliers posted around town, and that would help.
It might. But, it probably won’t. I can’t really give a reason why this event just hasn’t generated the kind of support other veterans events have; but, perhaps its time to accept that fact.
All schools are required by state law to have a Veterans Day program. These programs are always very good and informative, and they give our young people an opportunity to learn what service and sacrifice are all about.
Veterans are encouraged to attend these events, and many of them do. Perhaps our local veterans organizations can work more closely with all the schools to make sure local veterans know of the observances and get a good contingent of vets at each one of them.
In that way, more veterans could actually be a part of a community program, and they would get to see first-hand that their community supports them and thanks them for their service.
I think these programs are a much better representation of how our community feels about our military veterans.
