youtube/watch?v=Q65KZIqay4E ONLY IN AMERICA...ONLY IN TOPEKA Today is Veterans Day. Like thousands of other Topekans, I headed downtown to watch the parade. Over my seventy-five years I have watched hundreds of parades in many cities and towns, and I expected this to be just more of the same. Age is not kind to high-mileage bodies, and it is becoming necessary to choose carefully how to use available energy. This parade I probably would have skipped, except my grandson Christopher was in it, playing trombone for Topeka Highs marching band. Sixth and Kansas promised to be a good vantage point, and was just a few blocks from the parking place we found. We heard voices singing as we approached, a slightly off-key version of the Star-Spangled Banner. I couldnt make out the words, but I know them by heart anyway, so it didnt matter, I thought. The parade wasnt scheduled to begin for another thirty minutes, and when we arrived at the intersection, a line of thirty or so people were on the center line of Kansas Avenue, each holding a large American flag on a tall pole, shoulder-to-shoulder. A guy was handing out more flags from the back of his pickup. It looked like they were recruiting more people to hold flags, and I thought, Why not? so I got in line. At this point I didnt know there was a secondary purpose for the wall of flags. A guy told us to stand as close as we could, shoulder-to-shoulder. We were told to keep facing west, and to avoid turning around. As every kindergarten teacher knows, the surest way to get little kids to turn around is to ask them not to do it. So of course I turned, just enough to get a glimpse of whatever we werent supposed to see. It was the Phelps bunch (my apologies to bananas everywhere), complete with their venomous signs, spewing hatred for everything and everybody, especially our troops. We holders of flags were there on purpose, to block them from view, as much as possible. It was only later that I realized I had just joined the American Legion, however temporarily. And the singing we had heard from a distance was their twisted, perverted version of our National Anthem. Suddenly I was very glad I had come. For the next twenty minutes, every time we heard their despicable singing begin behind us, we spontaneously burst into song, making every attempt to drown them out. America the Beautiful, This Land is Your Land, God Bless America, Battle Hymn of the Republic, and of course our National Anthem, with the correct words. Once the parade began in earnest, it was a beautiful and zealous display of pure patriotism. We loudly thanked servicemen for their service, and they in turned thanked us for ours. At the mid-point of the parade, I violated orders again and glanced over my shoulder to see the Phelps bunch slinking off to once again crawl under their rocks. I turned to the woman on my right and whispered, The enemy is retreating. It was a good day.
Posted on: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 01:22:51 +0000
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