In a move leaving residents and outside observers with more questions than answers, organizers in Evanston, Illinois, have rained on the idea of an Independence Day parade this year, while, conversely, the city has marched forward with a Juneteenth Parade and a planned Gay Pride parade.
As Caitlin McFall reports for FoxNews:
The city of Evanston, Illinois, located just north of Chicago, joined communities across the U.S. in celebrating their first in-person Juneteenth parade Saturday, but some have been left wondering why celebrations for the nation’s Independence Day have been canceled.
The cancellation stems from actions taken in late 2020 by the private, volunteer, charitably-funded organizers of the Independence Day celebration, a group formed in 1921 called the Evanston Fourth of July Association (originally the NORTH Evanston Fourth of July Association), which later changed their name to encompass the entire city.
Writes McFall:
“The Evanston Fourth of July Association voted to cancel the town’s Independence Day events earlier in 2020 and opt for a virtual celebration instead -- citing concerns over the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.”
This despite the fact that huge gatherings like Black Lives Matter rallies and even large church gatherings in California and Canada have been conducted week after week without becoming so-called “super-spreader” events at all.
As McFall reports:
For the first time since the pandemic began, Evanston has reported zero new COVID-19 cases over the last week.
City data also show that nearly 87 percent of all residents ages 12 and up have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
Of course, it’s possible that the July Fourth Association knows what McFall didn’t report, that the so-called “vaccines” do not prevent infection by the virus, they are claimed only to decrease the severity of symptoms.
As noted above, she mentioned in her story that the group made its decision in late 2020. Yet, a few paragraphs down, we see this conflicting statement:
The board argued they were limited by time restraints and an unclear future during the pandemic.
’We made the decision in March based on the information that we had at that time,’ Trustee and Celebration Manager Jamie Black told Fox News. ‘There are deadlines for permits and to secure the fireworks, as well as taking applications for the parade that happen early in the year.’
My home town of Evanston, Illinois is having a Juneteenth Parade and a Gay Pride Parade, but is cancelling the 4th of July Parade & Fireworks. pic.twitter.com/KFhJ335LEl
— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) June 19, 2021
Clearly, there’s a conflict between the two pieces of info. But, to give Black and the association the benefit of the doubt, perhaps in late 2020 they had decided to do a virtual “parade,” but still might have had a chance to change that decision in March, putting together a last-minute plan to get the permits, take applications, and so on.
And, even as those questions remain unanswered, there’s the added facet of the Evanston parade story: the Juneteenth and Pride parades.
Writes McFall, on Saturday, June nineteenth:
(I)n partnership with Evanston Present and Future -- a nonprofit that supports community development and education surrounding Black history -- the city of Evanston helped promote a Juneteenth parade followed by community-wide celebrations.
The Juneteenth parade encompasses a full day of events, has multiple sponsors, and moves from a community center to a park, all of which require permits and planning.
According to the event promo-poster, one of the sponsors is the Evanston Parks and Recreation Commission, a tax-funded, government body.
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According to the Evanston Community Foundation, the “annual tradition” only started last year, when most of it was held virtually.
And, according to McFall, this year’s in-person Juneteenth event is not the only big parade that will be happening on the tax-funded city streets.
The Juneteenth parade – a celebration of the nation’s newest holiday recognizing the complete emancipation of enslaved people on June 19, 1865 – is not the only community-based celebration happening this summer.
Evanston Pride will host a car parade and community picnic later in June to celebrate LGBTQIA individuals -- though attendees are encouraged to bring their own food as an extra health precaution.
All of which presents a few more questions about the thoughts of event “decision-makers” in Evanston.
Do the disparities in parade decisions indicate that the city politicians are no longer shaking in fear about the COVID19 “pandemic”?
After all, the city government not only buckled to the patently unconstitutional lockdowns ordered by authoritarian governor Jay Prtizker (D) in the first quarter of 2020, it enthusiastically enforced all manner of bizarre, rights-attacking, useless edicts of its own,and which, in June of 2020, hypocritically allowed thousands to “march” in George Floyd “peaceful protests” – “peaceful protests” that saw looting of local stores (many of those being places that were locked-down already).
Does this differential in government policy last year and this split between the Fourth of July parade and the Juneteenth and LGBTQIA parades mean that the Evanston politicians and community organizers respect the Juneteenth and gay pride movements? After all, if the city is so concerned about COVID, then "not preventing" those "dangerous" gatherings must mean that they don't care about the health of gay pride parade or Juneteenth parade attendees, whatever their ethnicity, interest, etc, and the Evanston Independence Day organizers DO care about the health of people who might attend a July 4th parade...
Or, perhaps this is yet another example of the shameful sham of the COVID “pandemic” fear-mongering, based on a watered-down definition of pandemic established in 2009 by the World Health Organization to allow for less-deadly viral outbreaks to be called “pandemics" and untrustworthy central government so-called “officials” like Anthony Fauci whose own behavior and personal missives to others have revealed conflicting information and actions on how to handle the spread of COVID-19.
Whatever the answers, we can see the plain result in Evanston.
Independence Day will not be recognized in public, on tax-funded streets.