Memorial Day Peace Parade

As has happened in many years past, 2015's Memorial Day parade was followed by a contingent of 40 to 50 pro-peace activists asking people to think about US military and foreign policy that keeps making future Memorial Days necessary.  The group's theme this year is the River of Tears that US wars have caused since the end of the Second World War. We mourn the soldiers but question the wars.

The Peace Parade was organized by Metro Justice and Rochester Peace Action and Education. A permit was issued from City Hall for a parade, not a demonstration. Other participants included members of Veterans for Peace, the Green Party, Buddhist Peace Fellowship and Band of Rebels.  The march featured several banners, a large white dove that took three people to carry, and music from the Raging Grannies.

A 500 foot space was maintained between the two parades by police.  The city says this is legally required. As that empty space approached the reviewing stand on Main Street, officials abruptly announced the parade was over while the peace contingent was clearly in view.  By the time the contingent reached the stand mostly everyone's back was turned.

At least one mainstream media outlet characterized the group as a "protest," a label used all too often to reduce a forceful, positive message to negative, stereotyped caricature. One interviewee claimed that the parade was "no place for politics."  The parade was full of political campaigns in fact the last one to pass the review stand before they turned their backs belonged to Senator Robach.  The account can be watched and read here so long as the link is active.

http://13wham.com//news/features/local-news/stories/protestors-at-memorial-day-parade-3524.shtml

However a more striking observation was made as the peace contingent proceeded down its route.  Parade-goers in the upscale East End mostly ignored or walked away as the peace parade went by.  But across the river on West Main Street the audience was was mostly lower income working class people.  They waited for the peace parade to go by, cheered and applauded loudly as it passed.  Most US war deaths are poor and lower income people.