RustyBattleship

Because I was stumble fingered on setting up the poll bars correctly, I would like to start this over in 2 parts.
First: Should the Gay Pride group be allowed to have a unit in our Veteran's Day Parade. They tried last year but a loophole in registering date kept them out of it.

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Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

gunnut

I voted no because that's not what veteran's day is about. Homosexuals serve in the military not as a homosexual unit but as a military unit. The military designation comes first. They'll be allowed to have their own unit in the parade the day we have units like "the 37th Homosexual Artillery."

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"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

Gun Grape

I voted, Yes, only if they are veterans. I see nothing wrong with "Gay sailors"
marching in a parade on Veterans Day. Even if they are protesting the "Don't ask, Don't tell" policy.

However I don't agree with a bunch of civilians doing the same.

Bluesman

Yeah, sure; you betcha.

And every OTHER group that has members that have served in uniform can put THEIR pet rock on display, too, whether it has dammit to do with being a veteran or not. Eventually, we'll have a parade composed of a single file of flag carriers playing kazoos - each to their own tune, because they won't be marching together, just in the same place and time - and carrying a banner proudly proclaiming their preference for oral and anal sodomy, or their membership in a government-approved victimized hypenated-American minority, or maybe just brand loyalty to an insurabce company, for instance.

What a GREAT way to make the parade better and to bestow honor upon our proud veterans.

Gawd Almighty; with wonderful suggestions like this, we'll be saddled with a broken sense of community and a sterile public sphere in NO time at all.

Do you EVER get tired of being so goddamned iconoclastic and so look-at-how-interesting-I-am-because-I'm-so-very-aggressively-anti-mainstream? That act has gotten VERY stale.

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"The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it, and if one finds the prospect of a long war intolerable, it is natural to disbelieve in the possibility of victory."
- George Orwell

kmchugh

I voted yes, if they were veterans, but there are additional caveats I would add as well. First of all, understand I have no special axe to grind with homosexuals. However, there is a hardcore group who now want to turn every public event into a forum to demand “gay rights,” and I am frankly tired of it. There are forums where such debate is appropriate, but this ain’t one of them.

If veterans who are gay want to march in the parade, fine. But, they march as veterans, not “gay veterans.” Were I to participate, I would march as a veteran, not a “straight veteran.” The parade is about honoring service, about paying some respect to those who have served. It isn’t a place where each group gets to display their own grievances about how the military conducts business. As Bluesman wrote so eloquently, this ain’t the place for “a single file of flag carriers playing kazoos - each to their own tune.”

So, you want to march, march. Any banners that center around “gay issues,” any “gay rights” chants, or anything at all that detracts from the purpose of the parade gets you yanked out and sent home. We are here to honor veterans, and your foolishness detracts from that honor.

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If you didn't pay any taxes, it's not a rebate. It's welfare.

Gun Grape

They are veterans. Its their day too. They earned the right.

With your "Hyphenated-American Minority" It sounds like you don't think the Tuskegee Airmen if they decide to march as African-American US Army Pilots or the Navajo Code talkers if they group together and march as Native- American Marines have a place in your parade. They just need to blend in the rest of us. Sad
It ain't an act. Its me. There is that ignore option if your tired of it.

Shipwreck

Most LGBT vets don't ask for *gay rights*; what they demand are EQUAL RIGHTS.

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"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God" (Matthew 5:9)

kmchugh

You are of course, correct. I wasn't refering to "most LGBT" vets, I was referring to that hard core group, most of whom are not even veterans. It might even surprise you to know that I support the demand for equal rights. However, I stand by my initial point that these parades are not an appropriate or suitable forum for these protests. These parades are to honor those who served. Protests take away from the real purpose of the parade. Whether you agree with the demand for equal rights or not, whether you agree with the current policy in Iraq or not, can we not set aside an event just to honor those who served? Can we not recognize that many of these veterans served, and did so honorably regardless of their personal feelings about how they were called to serve?