Editorial: No parade, but Arlington Heights honored Memorial Day all the same
The image of Don Long making his solitary walk along the full route of the canceled Arlington Heights Memorial Day parade is indeed stirring. One can't help but share in the combined sense of pride and reverence inherent in Long's act of patriotism. But that doesn't mean organizers made the wrong call in canceling the parade three days early.
Greg Padovani, chairman of the Arlington Heights Veterans Memorial Committee, clearly was thinking safety first when he decided on Friday to scrap the parade and focus on an indoor ceremony. As it happened, the thundershowers predicted for Monday morning never quite materialized, but it doesn't take much imagination to consider what could have happened if they had.
Explaining his decision to Daily Herald staff writer Melissa Silverberg, Padovani makes a good case that while other smaller communities might be able to move people to safety in the event of dangerous weather, moving the 3,500 marchers and thousands more watchers lining Arlington Heights' long parade route would pose a complicated risk.
With the decision made early, the Veterans Memorial Committee was able to move the village's commemoration of fallen veterans to a safer indoor venue at Christian Liberty Academy, where nearly 1,000 residents shared in an event that had its own special appeal. To be sure, the three-day advance cancellation foreclosed any options of reviving the parade if changing weather patterns looked more promising, so event planners reflecting on this decision in the future might well consider whether it would be possible to warn people early of the potential for a late change of plans and use websites and social media - ubiquitous communication tools these days - to announce final determinations.
Even suggestions like those, however, require careful spur-of-the-moment thinking. As things turned out in Arlington Heights, the indoor ceremony provided for at least as much sober reflection, if not more, on the purpose for this holiday as any parade.
Making decisions involving popular outdoor activities when bad weather is forecast - or, even indoor activities when dangerous travel is possible, as with school closings in the winter - is never easy. In cases like Padovani's, they also carry the potential to offend. Many people, like Long, may well think it wouldn't hurt the public to endure a little discomfort to honor the men and women who have died to protect our freedom and security.
Did Padovani make the right call? With the benefit of hindsight after a predicted torrent proved to be only a mild annoyance, there will be room for endless inconclusive debate. But considering that the question of safety must always be paramount at such times, our conclusion is that he didn't make the wrong one.