Parades are kind of a funny thing. People walk or drive by, and you look at them. There’s lots of noise and lots of things that you look at and think “this parade would have been the same or better had I not just saw this.” However, marching bands are not one of those elements and that’s the reason I went to this. My sister’s band was marching in it, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see that. The rest of the parade was kind of ridiculous. There was tons of Italian pride, both good and bad, and plenty of people representing what could only be described as “The Old Country.” There was also an unpredictable amount of old men going in circles.

The absurdity of the Christopher Colombus story only grows stronger year by year, and more and more people are realizing he’s not quite worthy of much, let alone a holiday. However, this day is thankfully transforming into a day to realize this and talk about the injustice done to the Native Americans. Hopefully one day the holiday will be completely turned over to a day of awareness. That’s a parade I’d be glad to attend.