Tales Of Our Times
By JOHN BARTLIT
Los Alamos
More Searching News Adds Context To ‘Democracy’
This year’s 4th of July will mark our nation’s 249th birthday. Across the nation, cheering parades will pass by with bands, marchers, and amblers of many stripes and ages. Stalwarts will trod along central streets to endorse a great range of causes from goodwill to politics.
I was born and raised in a small town south of Chicago. Many times, my dad led a four-man rifle team of American Legionnaires in the annual 4th of July parade. As the rifle team reached the town center in front of Oliver’s Drug Store, the arms bearers would halt. With a few commands, they fired a volley in honor of World War I compatriots and then marched on. My brother and I have fond memories. Such were the ceremonies of the time.
This year, a strange conflict broke out between two of the enduring parts of our democracy. It happened on Flag Day one Saturday in June, some three weeks before July 4. On display were a long (mostly rightish) Army parade in D.C, and on TV, and crowds of protesters (mostly leftish) both thick and thin in cities across the nation.
Most of us think our current president has a contentious persona. His birthday is June 14, which is always Flag Day in America. This year, the buzz took a jouncy detour from the rich history of Flag Day. Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. Flag Day was first proposed in 1861 to rally support for the Union side of the Civil War. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that designated June 14 as Flag Day. In 1949, National Flag Day was officially established by an Act of Congress.
Instead, protesters in the news focused on the “excessive” cost of the military parade. Most estimates in the news varied from ~$20 million to $45 million. I was curious about the question: “How did these estimates decide which expenses for soldiers, security personnel, running tanks and helicopters, and cleanup were ‘added’ costs for the parade (such as fireworks and damage repair) and which were mere ‘workaday’ costs”? I found few answers in any media.
In part, my question is important for knowing about the “cost of freedom”. I support the needed cost, though too many key facts were missing from the news.
I was similarly curious about the “added” costs for the promise of peaceful protests in hundreds of large and lesser-sized cities. How much of these costs were “added” to serve the protests and which were mere “workaday” costs for police, crowd controlling and equipment, and cleanup? What expenses are required for damage repair after mostly peaceful protests? Again, I found few answers in any media.
These concerns about costs of protests are important as well for knowing the “cost of freedom”. I support the needed cost, though too many key facts were missing from the news.
Next year our Nation will reach the age of 250. Its founding father of inquiry and observation was Benjamin Franklin, a born journalist. He, and other star journalists who came later, served our country with due questions. From so few stars, the public learned to be curious.
What we need now is a rebirth of fair and thoroughgoing questions with answers in the news.