A fair question is raised here:
The New York Giants on Tuesday will be showered with confetti and greeted by throngs as they are feted with the city’s most storied honor: a parade through its Canyon of Heroes.
But all the fanfare — the parade this week is the fourth since 2000 to honor a sports team — has touched off anger and unease among some returned Iraq veterans, who are eagerly awaiting their own recognition.
“Everybody recognizes that the Giants deserve a parade,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. But, he added, “If a football team gets a parade, shouldn’t our veterans?”
Well, it is football, after all. There are relatively few men who have the talent and ability to become Super Bowl stars, and practically anybody can volunteer to put his life on the line for his country. What talent does that take? (Just kidding -- pen no angry letters, key in no snippy comments.)
Well, only partially kidding. A Super Bowl win is an unambigious victory in a clearly defined contest with universally understood rules. People have more mixed feelings about the military in the first place, and in the second, even those who enthusiastically applaud the military will argue about the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and whether we were right or wrong to engage there and if we were victorious or not. Certainly we should honor the troops, but I'm not sure a parade is the thing.
And isn't there something creepy about trying to equate the sacrifices of our veterans and war dead with a celebratory parade for a game?
