We Still Love a Parade

I didn’t attend the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl victory parade this week -- the event you’ve been reading and hearing about for all the wrong reasons.

I’m a relative newcomer to KC, not a fan of the Chiefs or the NFL, and, at my age, I’m not a big fan of big crowds either. So, taking a day off work to schlep downtown from my suburban home 30 minutes north of the parade route didn’t seem to make much sense for me.

But attending the parade did make sense for hundreds of thousands of my neighbors who are fans, and who wanted to celebrate.

Happily, the overwhelming majority of them returned home safe and sound.

Sadly, some attendees did not return home safely. A mother of two was killed and nearly two-dozen other people were sent to the hospital -- wounded when some idiots with no regard for human life figured the best way to settle a “dispute” as police call it, was to spray gunfire into a crowd of people.

It wasn’t the first time we’ve seen violence at sports parades and rallies.

To wit: in June 2019, four people were shot and wounded in Toronto, at a rally for the NBA Champion Raptors. In June 2016, a person was shot during a parade and rally for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Last year, two arrests were made during the Texas Rangers’ victory parade after shots were fired in the area.

(It should be noted that parades held outside of the sports world aren’t immune to violence either. In 2021, a man drove an SUV into a parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing six people. In 2022, seven people were killed in a shooting at an Independence Day parade in Highland, Illinois.)

While the vast, overwhelming majority of these events take place without major incident, the latest round of violence has some people questioning whether the time-honored tradition of a good old-fashioned parade is still worth it.

Here in Kansas City, the town’s mayor at one point, during a media interview, brought up the possibility of a more sterile approach to celebrating future sports victories – ditching the idea of downtown parades in favor of rallies inside the city’s sports stadiums, behind security walls of metal detectors and body searches.

And I admit, that's how I felt at first blush too.

That’s the way we seem to do it in America.

If Isaac Newton were alive today, his Third Law of Motion might say, “for every action, there is a guaranteed overreaction.”

That’s why, after somebody tampered with over-the-counter medication packaging a few years ago, it now takes a Craftsman tool set to open a bottle of aspirin. It’s why, after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, airport TSA checkpoints have been turned into virtual striptease burlesque houses.

Thankfully, Mayor Quinton Lucas also told reporters this week that future parades in Kansas City will continue to be held, beginning with the city’s annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, a month from now.

I disagree with Lucas on a lot of things, but in this case, we’re on the same side.

Growing up in St. Louis, we had our share of these sports celebrations over the years, and perhaps their best feature was the fact they weren’t sterile and locked down.

As a good buddy of mine reminded me via text this week, they were organic. They were as inclusive as they wanted to be. And in some ways, they were the last refuge of the forgotten fan.

Rabid followers of a particular team who didn't have the connections or couldn’t afford the $5,000 needed for a ticket to see their sports heroes wrap up a championship in person at least could afford to pack a blanket or lawn chair into the car and head downtown to bask in the glow of victory.

More importantly, these celebrations help communities bond.

Your color and gender don’t matter. It doesn’t matter if you're old or young, conservative or liberal. Your common bond is your team. Their victory is your victory, and that victory brings all of these disparate groups together.

So let’s not do away with the good old fashioned parade. Tinker around the edges, sure. Add more visible police presence when possible, yes.

And a little self-policing would help too. If you’re going to attend a parade, don’t get drunk. Don’t do weed. Cheer like crazy but don't be obnoxious. Try to be respectful of your fellow fans and if an argument breaks out, turn the other cheek and walk away.

But be vigilant. If you see something or somebody who is suspicious, summon a cop.

Do all of those things, but let’s not end the tradition.

Not only do we still love a parade, with so much divisiveness in the world today, we probably really need one too.

As always, thanks for reading.