Grandson on ‘big drum’ in the
Polk Days parade.

Today was Polka Days in Pulaski, WI where my grandchildren attend the local schools. Pulaski Days features a parade that includes the middle school marching band that one grandson plays the drums in and the high school marching band where the other grandson plays the drums in. We started the day with a Polka outdoor Mass which is similar to any Mass except all the music if polka music. The parade, including my grandsons, features lots of trucks, from farm equipment, fire trucks to trucks with polka bands. There was big military salute to veterans in the beginning of the parade where veterans from the Vietnam war and earlier where honored but none represented from longest war in military history, eleven years in Afghanistan and the ten plus years of the war in Iraq. This seemed strange to me since if you honored veterans as protecting our freedom why not honor the veterans of the last twelve years, part of the ‘endless wars’ we now find our country in. In my opinion the wars starting with the Vietnam war were “unjust, immoral and illegal” and, although we should honor veterans and soldiers in these wars, we need to condemn those who send them to these wars.

It is hard to condemn a war and respect and honor veterans of the war. But that is what we must do. There is much concern about the growing rate of suicide in the military and soldiers coming home with severe mental illness. However, the best way to honor these men and future soldiers is to get at the root causes of these unjust and immoral wars and stop them.

A big part of the Pulaski Day parade is for people to throw out candy along the parade route and for young kids to pick them up. With no major elections coming up there were no politicians this year but the candy was thrown, caught and eaten. Between my granddaughter on one side and a young girl on the other side of me plenty of candies were thrown our way.

The candy was a sweet treat but could not cover up the old left by forgetting soldiers and veterans from the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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