An uncomfortable first: Rolling TANKS in the Seafair parade

[BevHarris]

Complete with spinning machine gun wielders and blaring out a few bars of this: "I wish I was in the land of cotton"

This, and the recent Neocon TV appearances where they said (in response to criticism of our handling of Iraq) that we'd "get better at it as we do it more often" paint a nasty little picture of present-day America, don't you think?

Unfortunately, as Will Pitt pointed out, the younger generation is largely oblivious to the danger, our campuses are less than politically active, and our massive middle class has "got theirs" and ain't rocking the boat.

Today is one of those days that I feel a sense of foreboding. Can we do it? Can we get our country back?

Bev Harris

[RussBLib]

1. Where is Seafair?

And yes, anything is possible. Just when you think you've seen it all, people up and do the funniest things.

Hope ... despair ...

I'll take hope. Despair is too debilitating.

[BevHarris]

2. The Seafair parade is an annual event in Seattle -- and it is

not at all military (with the exception of the Blue Angels air show).

This definitely breaks with tradition. Usually Seafair is one big party.

Bev

[IMayBeWrongBut]

3. wow a real tank or just an armored vehical?

on edit: I guess what I mean was was it a tracked or wheeled? It's really spooky if it was a tracked vehical. Heck it's pretty spooky if it was just a police armored car...

[inthecorneroverhere]

26. tanks in Seattle parade?

I have never seen machine guns or tanks in a city or town parade in the U.S. I've seen military hardware at air shows when the base invites the public on base and stuff like that. I've seen the Blue Angels do a flyoever at a parade, but there was no ground hardware and certainly no tanks! I remember, every May 2, reading newspaper articles that described how many tanks rolled through Red Square during the big May Day parades, during the Soviet era.

A side point of curiosity - maybe a bit irrelevant to the main point:

Why on earth would they be singing 'Dixie' at a parade in Seattle???! It would be kind of normal in the South, especially some years ago, but definitely not normal outside the South. From reading the initial post, I had guessed the thing was somewhere in Texas or the South, until you said it was in Seattle.

I can only think of one possibility - maybe the band was playing an old song by Elvis called 'American Trilogy.' This song has a chorus from the Battle Hymn of the Republic in it as well as a couple lines of 'Dixie' including the 'land of cotton' line. The Battle Hymn (Union Army marching song) combined with 'Dixie' in that song by Elvis was supposed to represent 'unity.'

Here's the lyrics: http://www.lyricsdepot.com/elvis-presley/an-american-trilogy.html

edit: link to lyrics

[BevHarris]

27. The whole thing was inappropriate.

I keep feeling like this country is placidly being led into a very bad place, with most just nodding and whistling along.

[Cascadian]

4. I missed that one!

But I was out of town during that parade. Is this true? Tanks at the Seafair parade??? What the hell is this? You made it sound like those Soviet era parades at Red Square in Moscow. That is just sickening. Just as bad as the Blue Angels buzzing over my neighborhood (Queen Anne). America has just become too damned militaristic.

John

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

6. The Blue Angels

are a long time tradition at Seafair. You must be a very recent arrival to Seattle.

[BevHarris]

11. Yes, Blue Angels are tradition -- NOT tanks!

I think I said that.

Bev

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

29. Yes you did.

Are you so insecure you need my acknowledgement? I wasn't talking to you.

[Cascadian]

14. WRONG! Native Seattlite!

Lived here most of my life! I am well aware of the Blue Angels being here since I was little!

John

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

28. And it bothers you?

:eyes:

[alaine]

9. Ah, the Judeo Christian tradition:

mix one part paranoia, two parts persecution, three parts self-righteousness and voila, justification to kill anyone because we attacked them first.

Doesn't make any sense, I know, because the recipe is an intoxicant.

I thought the good thing about living in this country is that we're so big and bad we don't have parade our WMD's out in plain view.

[BevHarris]

10. Actually that's exactly what it was reminiscent of

A soviet military thing. We were freaked. Yes, big honkin' tanks.

I want my country back.

Bev

[Syrinx]

5. This sounds pretty strange

Care to speculate on the meaning of it all?

OT question: Can we expect to see you on any tv shows talking about the blackbox stuff? I'd love to see you for an hour on Larry King. Failing that, how about 5 hours on Coast To Coast on the radio?

[BevHarris]

12. Off topic but to answer your question: I'm breaking publicist rules

and refusing to do the TV circuit. Also refusing most of the documentaries (three have come my way so far.)

As a publicist, I'd scream if a client did this. Don't care. It's my face, my home, and my life. It was quite liberating to make that decision.

I will be encouraging TV talk show hosts to book the other activists, and I have approached some of them about doing the TV thing.

I know. tut-tut.

I've been lectured, I'm still not doing it. I gave up enough of my life to do this thing, and I'm keeping my privacy. At least, part of it.

Bev

[Syrinx]

21. I *stipulated* that it was off-topic

[BevHarris]

22. Yeah I know. Wasn't criticizing you at all. I was kind of apologizing

for taking up the thread to discuss BBV publicity. (Sorry if I wasn't clear on that.)

Bev

[gristy]

7. link?

I searched Google-news for

seafair parade tank

and get no hits. Are you in Seattle today, Bev? Certainly it wasn't a metal-tracked "tank". Tomorrow's commuters would not be very happy...

If it was a rubber-wheeled vehicle, and if it was just one, then don't worry about it TOO much. Really. :)

[BevHarris]

13. Not a tank. Tanks.

Wheeled, not traks.

Not overly worried, just did not find this an entertaining addition to the parade.

No link, this is what we saw.

Bev

[kainah]

30. Do you know who was "in control" of them?

This is very disturbing news. Were they Army or Reserves or Natl Guard? Do you know???? Are there military bases in Seattle that would have tanks? I am curious as to what level this might have come from. Were they national ... or maybe state Guard? Either way is ominous and spooky, but if it was state, I'd feel a teensy-weensy bit better........ (Of course, I'm not in Washington!)

[Pobeka]

8. Yes, Bev. We will get it back.

But we can't be discouraged. I only know one thing for certain, the first one to quit loses.

In my own little corner of the world, things are changing. I'm watching die-hard republicans questioning *'s policies at the water cooler.

And I work *real hard*, to give them a way out -- it's absolutely amazing when I inject a "You know, Bush is really worse than I thought he'd be" into the conversation. This is all about basic psychology, we gotta let people down easy. And, in their hearts, they *want* out of this mess. They just need *psychological permission* to say they made a mistake endorsing this administration.

Change the world, one thought at a time, one mind at a time.

We are not a thousand lights, we are a hundred million lights, and most of us didn't vote for the idiots running the show.

Chin up :-)

[Melinda]

15. Complete with a CIVIL WAR tune?

From here:

I Wish I Was in Dixies Land

"...there is no denying the critical role this wild refrain, that brings the faint heart back to life again, as John Hill Hewitt called it, played in rallying, unifying, and sustaining the South during and after the war."

I find this entire event quite frightening. Please keep us apprised as to your local coverage, Bev.

[Ein]

16. I'm converting youth more and more

I guess people my age haven't had the time to become narrow minded (at least a large part), once you show them the facts.... they know whats up.

[BevHarris]

17. Ein -- I was thinking of you before I posted that -- DU: Meet Ein = youth

High school or recently graduated, I believe?

I was thrilled to see you participating on the list, and I'm really glad you are still here (I saw people bashing you on one of the early threads) -- I always read what you post. You are an important addition to DU and to politics in general. Wish we had more of you.

(I'm working on my own houseful of teenagers and young adults. Well, at least my daughter just registered to vote...) And one of my sons actually got interested in the voting issue. Sorta.

Bev

[Ein]

18. Thanks

lol, I guess. Recently graduated, getting ready to spring to my own appt.

Thanks for the compliments! And thanks for your amazing work.

What were they bashing me about, must've missed it?

[BevHarris]

23. Ah, the early bashing

an abortion thread. My first and last foray into one. Very strongly opinionated group, there (same can be said of Black Box Voting).

Keep up the good work, Ein.

Bev

[kainah]

31. FWIW, Bev, our peace group has a lot of high schoolers

We can't seem to make much headway with the crowd at University of Wyoming, but we almost always have 4-5 high school kids at our events. Our Jubilee Days float (local festival) was fully manned by high schoolers, except the driver.

We'll get it back, we will, we will.........

[Pobeka]

19. Did you notice the crowd's reaction?

I was at the seafair parade in 1988, so it's been a while, but I remember it was fairly liberal back then.

Just a wondering if the tanks put people off, they cheered, or were neutral.

[BevHarris]

24. Not wild cheering, but no visible objections.

and the (we feel) somewhat inappropriate musical selection went right over the heads of our African-American teenagers. ("I wish I was in Dixie" is not a big favorite among certain populations)

Bev

[Generic Other]

20. Seafair pirates in tanks

And goose-stepping tin soldiers? Move the parade to Fremont and you would have felt like you were in Red Square.

[Eloriel]

25. Well, between this and the Pentagon Purge of 20% of its top generals

I think ya'll have plum ruined my day.

Shit.

I guess that nice, long stretch of hopefulness and optimism I'd been feeling was just too good to be true.

Drat.

Eloriel