The 4th of July, 2021, is tomorrow as I write this and I am doing the final preparations for the parade that we will have again in Milford this year. Like almost everything else last year, we did not have a parade because of the pandemic. We almost didn’t have the parade again this year, because of continued COVID restrictions on gathering. Those restriction were lifted last month, but not before they had their impact upon this year’s parade, which will be smaller. People had already made alternate plans by the tie we were able to decide to go ahead with the parade.
I cannot place all of the blame for a smaller parade at COVID’s doorstep. The 4th of July parade, like most parades has been shrinking in size for years. Where once we would have 60-70 groups marching in the parade (especially in election years) we are now lucky to have 40+ groups. I think the reason is that as a country we have become more “Me” oriented and less “We” oriented. People don’t seem to have a strong sense of celebrating the “We” of America when they think of the 4th of July. Instead, they think of the “Me” things that they can do with that little time off.
This is a country birthed with a document that begins “We, to people…”, but is has evolved and changed into a country where the individual freedoms that came with that birth seems more important that the collective good of all of the people, and the celebration of that collective good on the 4th of July has been pushed into the background.
Pastor Freed, in his blog Jack’s Winning Words, recently used this quote from Abraham Lincoln, who in the midst of the turmoil of his Presidency, said – “My dream is of a place and a time where America will once again be seen as the last best hope of earth.” I believe that, for most who live elsewhere, America is still a beacon of hope and opportunity. That is certainly true of the people making the dangerous and desperate journey to our borders. We don’t see people lining up at the border to get into Russia or China.
So on this 4th of July, take a moment away from your “Me” thinking and consider all of the “We” things that we have to be thankful for – our freedoms, our blessings, our country. And maybe, resolve to become a part of the celebration of the “We” in our country and sign up to be in next year’s 4th of July parade.
I’ll save a spot for you in the Milford parade.
Posted by Norm Werner 
nation. I organize the 4th of July Parade in my home town of Milford, Michigan. I march, as a veteran, in the Memorial Day parade and I work as a volunteer in the Christmas Parade, which always takes place Thanksgiving weekend. We don’t have a parade for Veteran’s Day. We also have parades for the start of Little League Baseball, and the local high school homecoming. Obviously, we love traditions in Milford.
The parades that we have in Milford mean that Main Street is shut down for s few hours and a crowd gathers to watch. The biggest parade, by far is our Memorial Day parade, which draws a crowd of several thousand to watch and which has almost 1,000 vets marching. The Christmas Parade features the arrival of Santa Claus to Milford for the Christmas Season. The Independence Day parade usually draws a big crowd to watch, too.
are causing the decline in church attendance effects the parade on the 4th – people are just too busy with other things to do.
life to pause and take a moment to just enjoy a shared celebration of thankfulness for things like the birth of our nation or those who served our country. We have become so wrapped up in ME that we don’t have time to celebrate the things that make us WE. I am not sure whether this is an indicator of, or a cause of, the state of unrest, distrust and hatefulness across the nation that seems to be reflected in nightly news stories.
events of the past will once again remind us that we have more in common than the differences that want to drive us apart. We stop to celebrate the events that were put in motion by those seeking the freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That is still a work in process, as Jack said; but it is worth pausing and having a parade.
The truth is that there is need all the time all around us and we have opportunities every day to help someone and perhaps change their world. Perhaps it is cynicism or fear that prevents us from stopping to help the homeless man on the street corner begging for enough to but a meal or maybe to provide one for his family. Maybe we feel that we are too busy doing things that are “important” to us to bother with stopping to talk to the lonely elderly women that we sitting in the 
retirement home window. We don’t have time to be bothered trying to discuss their issues with the distraught and depressed neighbor that we wave to in the yard. Yet, each of those encounters represent an opportunity for us to change the world for that person.
afford to buy a house for someone, but you could afford the time to work on a house for someone on a Habitat for Humanity project. Maybe you can’t take in the homeless man on the corner, but you could volunteer with the group Home for the Homeless to find him a place to stay. Or, perhaps you could volunteer to spend time at a local retirement home reading to the residents or just visiting with them.
every so often about the ex-soldier with PTSD or the ex-addict or the ex-homeless person who was helped by someone and who now runs a shelter or charity organization that is helping others. That person’s life was changed by an act of kindness by someone else and it changed their world from one of hopelessness and despair into a world of fulfilling accomplishment and self-worth through service to others. Now they are changing the world, one more person at a time.
Try it. Stop and help someone today. You might like it. YOU can change the world for someone today!
There are 6 really nice homes to visit, as well as the Milford Historical Museum and the Log Cabin next to the fire station.
The annual Milford Car Show is going on in downtown Milford today, too. Over 350 cars of every type and description will be on display from 9 AM until about 3:30 PM this afternoon. This is a free event.
parking lot at the corner of S. Milford Rd and GM Rd.
month to buy a “feel good tap” beer and support the Milford Historical Society.
sales during the year and almost always returns with things that didn’t sell then but which give the Granny’s Attic sale a unique flavor and content. There’s furniture and unique items, as well as the expected glass and china items. You’ll find things in this sale that you’d normally only see in antique stores. The sale runs Friday and Saturday fro 9 AM until 4 PM both days.
does for those who have just read about it or watched old new footage of the events leading up to his death. Thus who were alive in those days remember the context of the events that we now memorialize. We remember the nightly news casts showing black protest marchers being attacked by police dogs and being dragged away by police officers. We remember the speeches and the great gathering on the Washington Mall. The memory of Martin Luther King being shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, also provokes memories of where we were and what we were doing five years earlier on the day that President Kennedy was shot, Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. in Dallas, Texas. It also will be forever linked in our minds to the fatal shooting of Bobby Kennedy just two months later. Those were tumultuous times.
to the MLK Day parade in Milford later today. It will be cold, as it always is this time of year. As I march, I will be reliving the memories of not just a day; but, of an era in our history at once brilliant in the ideals that it sparked and sad in the aftermath of the attempts to douse those hopes and dreams. Yes MLK’s dream is alive, but so too are the dreams of JFK and RFK and the many others of that era who envisioned a brighter future in America for all of its citizens.
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