Who canceled Memorial Day parade?

Spectrum, by Verne Rupright

With the Fourth of July upon us, a look at the event of the past Memorial Day in Wasilla is necessary to examine our expectations as a community, the conduct of our officials and their policies and as we as Americans support and honor the departed sons and daughters of our military sacrificing for us all.

After 56 years of tradition the city of Wasilla did not have a Memorial Day Parade this year.

The question that arises is why this annual national event, commemorating the sacrifice of a nation's blood, honoring its veterans for service during desperate American struggles did not occur? Before that question is answered a composite of the meaning and origin of the holiday needs review.

Originally called Decoration Day, being a day of remembrance for those who died in the Civil War commemorated with the placing of flags on the graves and prayers for the departed was the beginning of the tradition.

The birthplace of the observation is unknown, however Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on May 5, 1868, by General John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic and first observed on May 30, 1968, when flowers were placed on the graves of the Union and Confederate dead at Arlington Cemetery.

Post World War I the observance honored all who died in American wars in the service of their country. The citizens of Wasilla with the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion have organized and sponsored the event in Wasilla since 1947.

However, this year was very different. It turns out that parade permits, city and state, with $1 million bonds were required prior to the event occurring. When made aware of the requirement the VFW parade organizer went into double time acquiring the said permits.

Both city and state officials waived the bond requirement for the parade permits, yet come Memorial Day no parade or proper observance was accomplished. What went wrong? The permits were issued, but subsequent to a discussion with the chief of Wasilla Police who stated no posted bond, no parade, the VFW organizer, rather than get into a problem with the police by going ahead with the parade canceled the event. Well the bond was waived you say, wasn't it? Is the chief now the interpreter of the law? Yes, the permits were issued and no, the chief of police is not the interpreter of the law, not by any statute on the Alaska books, yet. (Or the mayor).

This prompted a meeting with local veteran's organizations representatives, some poor soul from the state of Alaska Right of Way authority, the mayor and the chief. The state fellow explained the procedure for permits being issued for parades. Mind you, after the fact. However, during the discussion he stated in one breath that since we had a permit he would have gone ahead with the event, yet in the next breath said the permit wasn't valid, so we couldn't go ahead. Which is it?

Fact is, since the permits were issued, the parade organizers could rely on that. Whether the state or city had it right or wrong, the citizen has to rely on something, don't they? The poor guy from the state then offered an apology for the event not being held. Well, no one asked for an apology, nor was it needed, especially from the state representative. It wasn't a state trooper who ordered the event stopped or the man from right of ways.

The question was, who in city hall ordered the event canceled? No answer. What did come out of the meeting was the mayor wouldn't step up to the plate, and the chief wouldn't accept responsibility.

The state representative suggested that the city could enter an agreement with the state, like Anchorage has, and the city could issue the permit solely. When asked if that was a future solution, the mayor shot back that she didn't have the staff and wouldn't accept the responsibility.

We veterans, as well as all citizens, do know one thing about this, the mayor and the chief took Memorial Day off, probably with pay. We hope they enjoyed the day, the barbecue, the friends, family and time off. We hope that they get to do that in the future, in fact we hope all of you do. But Memorial Day is to remember and give thinks to those friends, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters and all others who gave their last ounce of devotion to those left behind to enjoy freedom's light. Perhaps this will appeal to the better nature of the angels overseeing city hall, after all the buck stops somewhere.

Verne Rupright is a judge advocate with VFW Post 9365, Wasilla.