COMMENTARY: Will We Now Fear Parades?
By Joseph J. Honick
Labor Day is almost here. Will we still welcome parades while many
millions remain unemployed and tens of thousands of battle wearied,
depressed and likewise jobless soldiers return with so little to greet
them?
This reality was brought home severely to me the other evening as I accidentally came upon an old video of the late Walter Cronkite's series "The Seeds of War." While it tracked the history from the end of World War I, the terrible inflation in Germany and the chaos it created, there were far too many parallels to where we are headed now.
There were the millions of returning jobless veterans to add to the already jobless civilians, destruction of the middle class while plenty of goodies went to the biggies and resentment grew and grew, even eventually destroying the country's failed experiment in democracy, opening the door to Adolf Hitler. Sadly as well, this movement got lots of help from influential people in America, Britain and France.
It is not cynical once again to make the point that symbolic times like Labor Day tied to the September 11 memorial will crystallize for many the times in which we live....times that have damaged our own leadership relevance in the world and at home at the same time.
All this has been going on as General Motors can smugly propose an IPO after getting tons of billions in bailouts and stimuli along with other major industry and financial giants. These realities do not go unnoticed by the millions with foreclosed homes and unemployed...men and women who had been deployed, redeployed and then deployed again only to return to inadequate treatment or even acceptable understanding of what they had been put through.
As I said a year ago, "These Americans will not remain quiet for long and are extremely fertile candidates for some clever agitator." I was also reminded that, about 20 years ago, to quiet laughter, I had proposed the idea of a Public Relations Peace Corps that would put the talents of a talented profession to work helping the millions hit by the developing economic and political problems. That idea was going nowhere fast of course.
But here we are today, immersed in all the "seeds" that read like the early 1930's and agitated and aggravated by interests battling from many sides and less than respected leadership from any of them.
So back to Labor Day that used to be a celebration of America's working men and women, followed by September 11, another day that will live in infamy. But absent from all this is any apparent recognition of reality.
If leadership from our industry fails to use the talents we sell to others, the old song "I Love A Parade" may not be sung again for a long time, as millions of impoverished, unemployed and military returnees swarm into Washington amid the glare of national and international media spotlights....while ignoring "liberty and justice for all" except for some!
Anyone who will take the time to "google" the Cronkite series must come away with a deepened sense of the parallels of the times and what such circumstances can breed.
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Joseph J. Honick is an international consultant to business and government and writes for many publications. Honick, a resident of Bainbridge Island, WA, can be reached at joehonick@gmail.com. This commentary was previously published in O'Dwyer's PR Report and is reprinted by permission.