July 4th, Left-Wing Style

I am back from my family vacation in the Monterey Bay area. A more beautiful and quaint area you would be hard pressed to find, but my, oh my, there are some loony people out there.

I was reminded of this once again when we attended a 4th of July parade in the town of Aptos, which is just south of Santa Cruz, a town famous for being a loonyville. When we arrived at the parade, I was actually pretty impressed and a little weirded out. I know the reputation of that area for being full of America haters and flag burners, yet here were a couple thousand parade participants and spectators filling and lining the streets of Aptos. As it got under way, at first glance it was your typical small-town parade. First you had your fire trucks trundling along as they blew their horns and whistles. Then a 1950s-era police car came by with the county sheriff waving to the crowd. Then a troop of wiener dogs being walked by their owners walked by, followed by a ukulele club strumming and singing God Bless America. Then the Santa Cruz County Democrat[ic] - there's nothing democratic about the Democrat Party - Party was next, carrying signs calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. One Dumbocrat was carrying a U.S. flag with a peace sign in the blue field rather than the 50 stars. Soon after that came a group of pro-Barack Obama myrmidons. They had one of those old Volkswagen bus vans with Obama posters on it followed by people with Obama signs and others handing out bumper stickers and literature to the onlookers. I made sure to grab one of the bumper stickers of course... seriously. Other entries in the parade included all kinds of local peace parties (as opposed to war parties?). They carried all manner of signs calling for impeachment, indicting our evil country, calling for peace at all costs, the usual. We left the parade just before the local Planned Parenthood chapter marched past.

I realize that being in Santa Cruz County, I was in the belly of the left-wing beast, and I fully expected to see what I saw at this parade. However, I still have to ask: couldn't these people have left their hatred at the door for just one day? Just this day, when we were observing not so much the events that are happening now, but the common heritage of our independence as a country; a heritage that has been going on now for over 230 years? Just this one day, couldn't these people have kept it non-partisan?

I know that it's too much to ask, especially since I am sure that many of these people are truly mentally ill. No, not all of them; but you can't look at some of the things these people do and not question their sanity, let alone their patriotism. If you want to attack me for expressing these feelings, all I can tell you was that *you* were not at that parade that day. I was, and I witnessed the left-wing attack machine in all its unmitigated glory. Remember, they were on their home turf and had no problem letting their vicious politics hang out on what should have been a gracious and honorable day.

The other tragedy of all this was that I was unable to take any pictures of this madness. Our five year-old digital camera puked just before the parade started. We are going to OfficeMax this morning to buy a new one.

Good Day to You, Sir