The Memorial Day parade for Oakland went through downtown Oakland with local residents lining the parade route ready to cheer.
Spectators who banked the sides of Ramapo Valley Road were active participants in a parade that featured the best of Oakland, the volunteers from many of the civic and religious organizations, the first responders, the kids, and of course the veterans who marched to remind everyone of those who sacrificed their lives in American wars.
While social mediums like Facebook help people stay in touch, the social memory that is born of annual parades such as this live much longer than the interactions experienced in an online world. The marchers and the crowd, both physically and emotionally, make real the community that is collectively imagined. Political differences melted away as the crowd cheered the volunteers of their community, and in turn paid tribute to the sacrifice of those who died.
The Memorial Day parade is a reminder that America is defined by those values that bring people together, those values represented by the marchers down the main street of town. If only for an afternoon, the best of Oakland marched as generations before with those values shared by every race and every creed represented in the local population. A celebration of shared sacrifice, shared responsibility, shared sorrow and shared joy.
The slide show above shows still images from the parade, and below is video footage of the event.
I remember the Oakland Memorial Day parades from the late Fifties and early Sixties. Oakland’s Spanish-American War veteran would always ride in a car and wave to the crowd. For a few years we had Army tanks in the parade. After the parade, they would park by the rec field, and all the kids would climb over them. Oakland was a great place to grow up in.