Lions Convention
Just about every event passes through the Trump filter in this day and age. Today, the Lions Clubs International held a parade on Chicago's State Street to commemorate the organization's 100th anniversary. One parade participant proudly told me that the Lions Club is the largest service organization in the world, with 1,400,000 members in about 200 countries. The organization focuses its efforts on visual impairment, hearing loss, disaster relief, diabetes awareness, and other good causes. According to the participant with whom I spoke, somewhere around 45,000 people marched in the 4.5-hour parade, although I saw another estimate that put the number at 10,000. Whatever the actual number, it was a lot of people.
All I can say is the Lions showed Donald Trump what America and the world is all about on this Fourth of July weekend. The groups marching included people from such diverse places as China, Columbia, El Salvador, Estonia, France, Israel, India, Italy, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Palestine, Panama, Peru, Switzerland, and dozens of states. I wonder whether anyone had trouble obtaining a visa.
Many of the groups were attired in colorful native garbs, providing a lot of color. Unfortunately, the media (and possibly the Lions themselves) did a terrible job getting the word out. There were large gaps in the eight or so block route, with no depth to the crowd lining the barricades. So far I have seen no reports in the media about the parade. Too bad. It was quite a Fourth of July celebration.
With all the strife in the world, it was nice to see people from all these countries getting along so well. All smiles.
Note the parade happened on July 1, but the internal calendar only shows July 2 and thereafter.
Some Groups Picked Up on the Fourth of July
More photographs to follow when I return from the Maine Media Workshop in a Week. Gotta pack
