Pathetic parade
Personally I think it's indicative of the parade organizer's opinion that they wanted the Marines to walk in llama sh@t. Pretty clear message! Stop bein' so doggone touchy. If I was putting the parade together I wouldn't have even thought about that, uh, issue. Maybe they didn't either. In retrospect I can understand why the Marines were upset with their spot - but maybe, just maybe, it wasn't intentional. How 'bout we see how it turns out next year before jumping to conclusions? Or is the jumping more fun? Shrug. I thought it was a fine parade, and it seemed crowded enough that I'll bet a lot of others did also. If you didn't like the parade, I suggest taking a pass next year. This was my first time at the Denver St. Patricks parade. I have been to many wonderful St. Patrick's Day parades in other cities, including Milwaukee, Chicago, Boston, and New York. While this was probably the longest parade I have seen on St. Patrick's Day, it was no where near the best (actually it was the worst of the cities I have seen the parade). Maybe it was an off year (although I was assured that this is what it is). The slight to the Marine's if as Tim suggests, was either unintentional, or just plain ignorant, is still a slight. I personally will be going back to Boston for the St. Patrick's Day celebration. Denver, we do some things VERY well. St. Patrick's Day, is not one of them. Dan2, "Tis too! Best place for green beer in all America at . . . Duffy's Tavern . . .. Whoops! I forgot. Tore it down to make way for another junk pile monument - or parking lot, maybe. Oh! Well! One day in the year to wear an orange Bronco's blazer anyway! Hey all just wanted to put my two cents in. I am a Marine and usually if your in a Color Guard you are in the FRONT..LEADING the parade. If its troops it is proper to put them as close to the front as possible mainly becuase you dont want them walking behind animals, or behind something messy. (uniforms are expensive to upkeep) other than that I dont see what the big deal is... Denver is slowly being San Francisco-ized, it will soon reject the military in similar fashion as their sister city. Denver was once a wonderful little city, but it is infested with a termite called California ideologues. The people of Colorado were once proud to be different and do things their own way, but now the new Coloradan's are sheep. The people of Denver I once new would never have allowed the Parade organizers to treat their military so poorly....it was not a mistake....it is an ever increasing trend in a city that has changed.......and not for the better. John V, Maybe Coloradoans are finally coming around to the 21st Century, and beginning to recognize that not all celebrations and parades are based on showing off the military. We are, after all, dealing here with St. Patrick's Day, supposedly a religious holiday with cultural overtones that are more or less summed up in "The wearin' o' the Green". Unlike the late - and unlamented - Soviet Union, rank after rank after rank after rank of armed military, and motorcade after motorcade after motorcade of missles, tanks, and other mobile armor, really aren't all that necessary to show off how "powerful" we are, or how "American superiority" is manifest, every time people parade. J. Vanderhoof You are so right !! People like Old Grouch moved here or was converted from being an independent thinker. Born and raised here. Sorry to disappoint you, T. It's the ones who seem to "think" that everything stopped somewhere in the last part of the 19th Century - or perhaps the first part of the 20th, just after World War I, when rattling the saber was always the way to solve every problem - who don't know what "independent thinking" means. So Old Grouch, you equate the military to the Old Soviet Union?? I'm sure if I asked, you would also lie and say you served your country....I doubt it. Anyone who has served, with the exception of Mr. Murtha would understand why we should honor them at every opportunity. John V I don't need to lie to make a point in debate. I nearly lost an eye as a child - by way of ambliopia, as we didn't have Peanuts cartoons in that day and age - and after all the vision treatments, etc., that finally managed to get focus back to 3 dimensional with depth perception, a crusty old Navy Chief Hospital Corpsman told me - after 3 separate eye exams down in the Old Customs House (physicals before enlistment, or Draft) - that he wouldn't even send me over to Korea as a grunt; since I'd be likely to wind up shooting my own troops if for some reason my glasses broke, or got lost. I don't equate the military with the Soviet Union. I just happen to wonder why the military needs such special consideration in what is supposed to be a parade honoring a religious personage, Saint Patrick. And, why does the military necessarily have any special place in parades other than those held to honor military events, i.e. Veterans Day, Memorial Day. There is a difference between honoring and mere display. So....Old Grouch....your saying your hatred of the military comes from NOT being allowed to serve. I suppose you never attempted to serve your country in another capacity. Most likely you hunkered down in Colorado or wherever you’re from and watched the world pass you by. I don't think it should matter what the theme of the parade...our veteran's deserve the honor. Until you do serve your country in some REAL capacity by making a sacrifice that is equal to serving in the military, perhaps you should say nothing, because you have not earned the right. Remember rights are earned, they are not an entitlement and with them come certain responsibilities….enough said. I can't, of course, change your fantasies, or imagination, sir. If you think I have "hatred" for the military, that's your problem. As to your idea of rights being "earned", I've heard that argument many times in life before. I absolutely disagree. As Americans, we are born with Constitutionally guaranteed rights. These are basic entitlements. And one of these is free speech. And insofar as responsibility be concerned, that is not a matter of blind obeisance to someone else's idea of what constitutes "honor", or "service". YOU are of course, within YOUR rights to feel that, "it should not matter what the theme of the parade . . . our veterans deserve the honor". Just as I am within my rights to feel that there is a difference between honor and mere display. And, having both exercised our right of free speech, and free expression of our positions, there is nothing more to say.