Tonight was the River Falls Days Parade. It's a pretty big deal in this community. It lasts over three hours and nearly every local business and area marching band and royalty court participate. Every year, there are also 3-5 local politicians campaigning.
I appreciate political campaigns and I support individuals using a community parade to share their position with "the people." It's a great platform to reach potential voters. Whether I agree with the political position of the candidates, I enjoy seeing them making the attempt to be visible.
I wrote a while ago about the politics that have taken place in Wisconsin over the past 6 months and did my best to remain objective without choosing a side. I'm honestly torn on many of the hot button issues being discussed right now. What I am not torn about is my continued decision to not support the approach of a few political candidates.
Tonight the parade showed a side of educated adults that was nothing short of embarrassing. The Shelly Moore posse hurled insults at Sheila Harsdorf supporters and paraded their arrogance and pride in a disgusting manner. They shouted and booed at counterparts and those in the parade were extremely belligerent. With deep anger and bitterness they yelled to parade watchers that their children deserved more, etc. I may or may not agree with them; I'm not sure. However, I'm quick to tell MY child that he should never act like those people did tonight. Never. Ever. These individuals are supposed to represent "the people." If they represent some of my friends and heroes that I've looked up to, this scares me. This group acts more like pre-adolescent children who didn't get their way. That's not what I looked up to my whole life, is it? I feel like I was misled.
Again, I'm not choosing sides on the issues or endorsing either candidate. However, it was interesting to me that Shelia Harsdorf, who has been dragged through the mud, walked through the parade with a big smile and shook many hands. I don't know how things went elsewhere during the parade, but there were parade watchers cheering for her (right, wrong or indifferent...). Tonight, she was nice and polite. Her opponent was not. I can support polite people. Mind you, all of the banter contrasted with meekness happened within three feet of my 2 1/2 year old son.
When I attended a rally in March, I was disgusted by the behavior of those who led the charge. Once again, I'm extremely upset with the behavior of these people. I get it, there might be a lot of bad things going on in Madison (and Washington), but for crying out loud people, there are a lot of impressionable CHILDREN watching your behavior. Ironic that you say your FOR my child. The only thing you have offered him is a great big picture of whining, complaining, treating others with disrespect and many other ugly things I try hard to keep him from. Thanks for ruining my parade experience. I really hope my 2 1/2 year old son can keep the rotten campaigning out of his memory bank. I wouldn't mind if he took some of Shelia Harsdorf's courage and manners home, though. That was admirable. I want my kids to act like her.
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interesting behavior in ones home community, to bad they did not display such behavior in the parade this past weekend. Harsdorfs group was rude and we did not witness Sheila walk out and shake one hand and she marched right behind her sign. Moores did not hurl one insult and was out shaking hands. She was even polite to those heckling her.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that. I don't know Shelly Moore and I've heard she is a wonderful woman. I'd like to see evidence of this in the public instead of hearing it from her political supporters. I'm excited to attend the open forum at the Chamber of Commerce next week.
ReplyDeleteTo add to my story above, my 3 year old niece turned to my mom (her grandma) and said, "why is she yelling at me?" when then red signs passed by. I don't know who she was referring to, however, to her, someone seemed to be yelling at her. I can't excuse that.