{"id":1110,"date":"2014-03-17T16:46:25","date_gmt":"2014-03-17T20:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/?p=1110"},"modified":"2014-03-17T16:46:25","modified_gmt":"2014-03-17T20:46:25","slug":"1110","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/?p=1110","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Tulla<\/a><\/p>\n

A fierce wind kicked up some kilts on Fifth Avenue today.<\/p>\n

Bagpipers, flag-wavers and hornblowers marching in the world\u2019s oldest and biggest parade braved temps in the mid-20\u2019s on this St. Patrick\u2019s Day in New York City.<\/p>\n

My position for the parade was the southeast corner of 76th Street and Fifth Ave.<\/p>\n

I had never attended a St. Patty\u2019s Day parade here and was glad I did. It was an impressive display of Irish pride and community spirit.<\/p>\n

You probably know our new mayor Bill de Blasio boycotted the parade because organizers limit participation to groups aligned or compliant with old guard Irish Catholics. Much is made about a perceived bias by parade honchos against gays – and in fact – gay rights groups are not allowed to march in the parade with overt displays of their agenda. This is a parade that\u2019s basically limited to marching bands, bagpipers and cops. Lots and lots of cops.<\/p>\n

\"NYPD<\/a><\/p>\n

Enter de Blasio\u2019s police commissioner Bill Bratton. Breaking from his boss, Bratton was perhaps the most prominent political face in this parade. He marched with his wife Rikki Klieman and deputy\/friend John Miller. Bratton was in a tough spot. While he\u2019s friendly with the gay rights movement, he\u2019s Irish and he\u2019s a cop. He wanted to march in the parade. So he did. There were reports Bratton was the subject of catcalls from LGBT groups protesting along early parts of the route in midtown.<\/p>\n

When Bratton passed me at 76th Street, few seemed to recognize who he was. The sidewalk on the west side of Fifth Ave. was nearly empty. A few minutes later, Bratton (pictured above) walked back the other direction – against the grain – perhaps to gain a view he didn\u2019t otherwise get as a participant.<\/p>\n

With the brewer of Guinness abruptly withdrawing its parade sponsorship under pressure from gay rights groups, it\u2019s probably just a matter of time before the rainbow flag flies above this event.<\/p>\n

Not to waffle, but I see both sides. Dating to 1762, New York City\u2019s St. Pat\u2019s parade doesn\u2019t want to dilute its mission of celebrating Irish heritage. That\u2019s the parade they put on. They want to keep it the way it is.<\/p>\n

But why not let gay Irish blow some horns under a flag that makes it clear they\u2019re gay. What\u2019s the harm?<\/p>\n

In the end, it\u2019s the people who gather by the tens of thousands up and down Fifth Avenue who decide what\u2019s in good taste and what\u2019s in step with the celebration of St. Pat\u2019s Day. The organizers should probably open it up and see what happens.<\/p>\n

Next year, they will, I predict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A fierce wind kicked up some kilts on Fifth Avenue today. Bagpipers, flag-wavers and hornblowers marching in the world\u2019s oldest and biggest parade braved temps in the mid-20\u2019s on this St. Patrick\u2019s Day in New York City. My position for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s28tEv-1110","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1111,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1110\/revisions\/1111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesauerbrunreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}