by Tim Delamatter

Created on: November 22, 2010   Last Updated: November 23, 2010

The best ever Veterans Day Parades have got to be the ones from small towns. Sure we could look at all of the pomp and money put into ones from big towns, but the Veterans Day Parade has come to showcase the success of the average Joe.

This parade is about people who would not have been Hero's because of their pursuit of the mundane ordinary life of just trying to survive, but then by no fault of their own are thrown into a circumstance where they are able to show off their internal goodness.

Every Service person goes into the Service for one of two things.

1.       To get away from the life they are living and find a life

2.       To serve their Country and give of themselves.

There are many other reasons, of course,  but these two sum up all the others in my opinion. When you look at these two motivations then apply them to the people who serve in the Military, you can see why a Parade to honor them deserve to receive all the credit during A Veteran's Day Parade.

A Parade in general, is usually about floats, marching bands, and the excitement of Celebration. A Veterans Day Parade however, should be one that is less about attraction and more about making our Service People realize how much we do care for them. The best way I know to do this is to make them the center of attraction.

If there are thousand dollar floats, and amazing fifty member marching bands in perfect tune, the Veteran will somehow get lost. Oh yes you will see them March by in their dress Uniforms, and then we do consider for one little moment the price they paid for their service. my question is. Is this enough to honor their sacrifice?

What normally happens with big Veteran's Day Parades, after the briefest of moments of thinking about their sacrifice, we are forced to immediately turn our attention to the next float done by some flower shop sponsored by some big car dealership consequently we completely forget the reason there is a parade.

I moved to a small town from a fairly large one about ten years ago. The big town would over decorate with flags, and make sure everyone knew their parade was one of the biggest and best around. Every Veterans Day Parade for me growing up was this way. If you went to the Parade it was very impressive. The floats were colorful and very Patriotic, some even explained the creeds of the different Service branches. All very nice.

The problem was the Service Peoples March was lost at the end

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