Boise’s July 4 parade should have been a time for unity. Liberty Dogs stopped that | Opinion
If the point of Boise’s Fourth of July parade was to highlight and deepen divisions and tension within Idaho, it succeeded.
It could have been a thoroughly normal event, and much of it was: Firetrucks, a marching band, people on stilts — a family-oriented celebration.
But organizers of the parade, the first held in Boise after a three-year hiatus, decided to allow armed groups to parade alongside the escaramuza riders and people dressed up as founders.
Maybe the Idaho Liberty Dogs and other far-right groups who came bearing weapons thought they looked like the soldiers who fought the Revolutionary War.
They looked like Hessian mercenaries.
No one watching far-right groups march with AR-15s in their hands and sneers on their faces figured they were off to fight colonial oppressors. It was a show of force, an ongoing effort to intimidate people who disagree with them, not a celebration of America.
This is what the Liberty Dogs have been doing for years: intimidating people celebrating Pride, trying to ban books and comparing a local rabbi to Hitler, while posting the address of a local synagogue, as Betsy Russell of the Idaho Press reported last year.
This is the first time the new organizers have run this event. They may simply have been unprepared to deal with groups like these.
But the decision to allow them to carry guns has left an indelible mark.
Independence Day is not supposed to be a celebration of weapons or a march through enemy territory. It is supposed to be a time to set aside what divides us and remember what we have in common.
This parade did not do that when the Liberty Dogs strolled along. And next year, anyone who wants to bring their children might wonder whether they’ll be safe.
This story was originally published July 6, 2023 at 10:09 AM.