The Right Time and Place For a Parade

Yesterday was the ritual ticker tape parade in New York City for the World Champion New York Giants. The parade went down the "Canyon of Heroe's", better known as lower Broadway in the financial district of Manhattan. Why you ask, does New York City host a parade for a NFL team that plays in New Jersey? A better question to ask is why is it still called a "ticker tape" parade when in actuality they toss shredded paper and confetti. Alas we will go back to the first question. Although they play their games in New Jersey, the Giants are still the New York Giants. The Buffalo Bills don't play in Buffalo, (Orchard Park, NY), The Dallas Cowboys don't play in Dallas, (Arlington, TX) and The Washington Redskins don't play in Washington DC, (Landover, MD). When The New England Patriots won their championships the celebration was held in Boston, not Hartford, CT, or Montpelier, VT. So you see, where the location of the parade is does not really matter. Now we come to a bigger question, should the taxpayers pay for a parade for football players? Please feel free to replace the words football players with any other sport. Again the answer is yes. The parade is not "for" the players but for the fans, the community, the people that live in the city. I'm sure everyone didn't just drive to down town NYC and find a parking place to just view the parade. Money was spent. Increase use of subways and buses, fines for parking tickets for those that did drive. Restaurants and shops had a banner day. So to all you nay sayers, a parade and celebration for a winning sports team is very good for the community.
     Now the bigger question, is someone that can throw or catch a ball be called a hero and deserve a parade over, let's say, a returning veteran? Absolutely not. You must be out of your mind to think that but you are comparing apples to oranges. Not just sports "hero's" have been littered with confetti on Broadway in NYC, on October 28, 1886 an impromptu parade was held on the dedication of The Statute of Liberty (and no, Lady Liberty, was not paraded down the parade route). After that, some of the parades included, Admiral Dewey on his return from Manila in 1899, in 1910 Teddy Roosevelt on a return from a safari, General "Black Jack" Pershing in 1919 after WWI. The roaring twenty's had no less then 25 ticker tape (when they still used ticker tapes) parades for everything from visiting heads of state to our own Olympic athletes. Bobby Jones winner of the British Open (golf), aviators Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart. The 1930's kept up the pace including Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan following his flight from New York City to Ireland in 1939 (he was scheduled to fly from New York to California). The 1940's were more for war hero's and leaders after 1945, the 1950's it seemed the only way to get rid of all your ticker tape was to toss it out the window with over 60 parades in the decade or about one every two months.Things started to slow down after the 1960's and a ticker tape parade became more of a event then just getting rid of excess paper. In May of 1985 a parade was held for Vietnam War veterans only about 10 years too late. Not as late as the Korean War vets had to wait, 1991. So you see, it is not just sports teams that get the paper tossed parades down the canyon of heroe's so don't get your knickers twisted up in a knot. Just sit back and enjoy.