My brother Steve (the one who was in the marching band) left a comment that I think deserves to be highlighted:
Well remembered, Tom![That's all, folks]
[from the 'oldest brother' in this story]
This is an interesting year to recall that story for a number of reasons. My daughter (Tom's niece) is the same age as I was then. Public antipathy to the Vietnam War had reached roughly the same level by then as opposition now to the invasion of Iraq, and support for the war was rapidly shrinking to the point where only the hardcore militarists -- represented in this incident by the American Legion -- were left defending it with increasingly desperate, nasty and hysterical rhetoric.
I don't want it to sound more heroic or glorious than it actually was. This was just a spontaneous act by some kids who -- along with their friends and families -- were pissed off and fed up with being told to shut up and "Love It Or Leave" a country that was founded on such principles as free speech and accountability to the people.
The thing went down because the peace proponents asked through established channels to participate in what was supposed to be a town parade, but were turned down because it was controlled by the American Legion (and maybe also the VFW; I can't remember). We fully expected to wear our peace-symbol armbands in the parade as a modest, non-disruptive but visible statement, while going about the real business at hand -- getting all the way through "Stars and Stripes Forever" without crashing into each other. I'm not sure if it would have made a difference if the armbands had been black (instead of the more politically charged peace symbol), because the battle lines had sort of been drawn. Besides, we've seen all over again that the war yahoos want their recognition of death in war to be highly abstract, hence the "no-flag-draped-coffin-pictures" official policy today.
The role of the "press" in promoting war plays in this story, too. The pitiful rag of a local paper had an article about the "incident" that alleged that we were "jostling" people on the sidewalk as we walked alongside the band, a total fabrication that is still a source of great amusement at family gatherings.
One of the things I remember about that time is the pervasive optimism that I felt -- and I think a lot of other people felt -- about the eventual direction of the country. It was only a matter of time before enlightenment would spread across the land. I couldn't have known that the democratic institutions that would have brought this about instead would reach an unprecedented level of corruption. Back then, there were actual checks and balances. After Watergate, there should never have been another Republican president elected in my lifetime, or a Republican-controlled Congress. But Democrats were asleep at the switch, and to those who still think they can sit back and wait for the pendulum to swing the other way, I say:
Alito, Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, and Scalia.
Free the LHS 8!
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