Letter to the Editor: Boycotting parade

I will never walk again because I stepped up to serve my country, but at least I made it home.

It is absolutely egregious to me, as a combat veteran, to have our Fourth of July fireworks display being held on another day because it is economically more advantageous. Independence Day isn’t about who can make the most money, it is about honoring the sacrifices made by the 56 men who signed the Declaration, those who laid their lives on the line to establish a country not ruled by oppressive overlords. It is also about paying our respects to the nearly three million men and women who have died in America’s wars to preserve the sacred rights given to us in the U.S. Constitution, ratified 12 years after the Declaration was signed.

You don’t go to church on Thursday, and you don’t celebrate July 4 on June 30.

As a chaplain of The Dalles Outpost of Point Man International Ministries, I will not be participating in the July 4 parade out of protest. I urge other veterans to do the same. Some things are worth fighting for, this is one of them. No matter how well-meaning the organizers of this event are, they are dead wrong to do anything other than put their efforts into fully recognizing the anniversary of the day it all began, July 4, 1776.

USMC Capt. (Retired) Dan Brophy

chaplain, The Dalles Outpost

Point Man International Ministries