Let It Rain!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The midwest has been inundated with rain this spring, far more than usual and much more than we need, but it has been dispersed to the point that flooding hasn't been a big issue.   The grass and weeds, however, are growing at record speed, and people rush to get their yards mowed between the cloudbursts.   Through it all, the water tables are rising and the ponds are filling - which are good things.

It has rained in southern Missouri, where I live, parts of the last two days, and there is a possibility of more today.

Alexa just told me that there is also a possibility of rain today in Washington, DC, our nation's capital and the sight later today of a massive US military parade that will honor the 250th anniversary of the United States Army - an enormously expensive  event that some leaders in our military were apparently not eager to hold.  The person who was eager to see a parade today is Donald John Trump, the President,  a non-veteran who chose not to get involved in the Vietnam War in his youth, but today is making big money as his family invests in business ventures in Vietnam and around the globe.  

Donald John also happens to be turning seventy-nine today, a happy coincidence that allows him to sit on a reviewing stand on the White House lawn and watch proudly as nearly 6,600 troops march by (people wearing the same country's uniform that he chose not to wear in the 1960's), 150 military vehicles (including tanks which have been repainted especially for today's show), and a swarm of military aircraft flying overhead.  

The cost of the parade in DC today is estimated to be at least $45 million with some estimes ranging as high as $90 million.    The social safety net that guarantees food and health care to millions of Ameericans may be in tatters, but the big show in Washington, DC, will go on!

The last big military parade in DC was in 1992 when President George H.W. Bush used on to celebrate the end of the Iraq War.  Republican politicians, it would seem, love the symbolism of military parades, undoubtedly for the power they imply.

And while the Army celebrates its birthday, and others celebrate Trump's birthday, many Americans will be focusing on joining in one of hundreds of protests that are happening across the United States to draw attention to what they see as Trump's use of the United States military for partisan political purposes, and the nation's rapid transformation from one that operates on democratic principles to a country that seems to be reflecting the rule of an autocrat - or even an emerging monarch - something our country forcefully rejected back at the same time it was giving birth to the Continental Army.

There's going to be a lot going on today.

Alexa says the high in Washington,DC today will be 81 degrees F, and the low 66 degrees F - and the skies will be sunny, but with a chance of thunderstorms.

It's definitely time to rejuvenate the concept of democracy - let it rain!