LETTER: Don't block U.S. tradition from July 4 parade

In March, 2012, on behalf of the Flathead Valley Muzzleloaders club, I approached Mr. Joe Unterreiner, CEO for the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce, about their Fourth of July parade, and also Mr. Charles Harball, Kalispell city attorney. Both men gave our club approval to escort a parade float up Main Street, firing “reduced” load “blanks” in our single-shot black-powder muzzleloading rifles.

We considered this to be quite appropriate as a way to celebrate our national independence, liberty and freedom. Spectators crowding downtown sidewalks and curbs appeared to equally enjoy the smoke and sound of freedom.

We were permitted to do that for the next four years.

This year, however, parade officials prohibited the display of firearms or discharge of blanks of any kind in the parade, fearing sensitivity to anyone due to recent radical Islamic terrorist events we are all too familiar with.

I’m afraid political correctness has again reared its ugly head. Yet how can the very item that actually and truly delivered a new nation blessed with unheard of independence, freedoms and liberties be denied and forbidden from the very parade supposedly celebrating and honoring our founding?

This is the Chamber of Commerce parade, and obviously they may make their rules. We will abide.

When there is a nasty automobile collision, we blame the drunk driver. When there is a bombing, they blame the bomber. Why is it when there is a shooting, they blame the gun? Pencils must be what cause misspelled words, and matches the true cause of arson.

We, the club, are privileged to have several retired local law enforcement officers in our membership. Many of us are military veterans. Some are hunter-safety instructors and 4-H leaders. Needless to say, we are very disappointed with the chamber’s decision. At our monthly business meeting June 28, the club therefore voted unanimously to withdraw from the parade. We quietly put away our 13-star “Betsy Ross” flag and will press on with our other activities.

Sadly, Independence Day has become to many a commercial holiday, just as Christmas, Presidents Day, Memorial Day and Veterans Day have allowed America to be inundated with sales hype to buy recliner chairs, cars, widescreen TVs, and the latest and greatest barbecue or boat.

We must not lose sight of the true meaning of the all-American Independence Day, July Fourth, won not by United Nations delegates, NATO members or media-fueled politics — rather, by much suffering and misery, much blood and that utilitarian tool of that day, the flintlock, black powder, muzzleloading rifle.

—Mike Jorgenson, Bigfork, president of Flathead Valley Muzzleloaders