How, when and why did my beloved May Day holiday get co-opted?
I was born in the early 1950s. When I was little, the neighborhoods had May Day parties with a Maypole, cookies and juice. We would pick wildflowers, roll them up in construction paper cones or make little paper baskets to hold them. We would ring our neighbors bell and leave them on the step as a friendship offering.
I loved this holiday so much my husband and I chose it for our wedding day and yes, we had lots of flowers.
By the time I became an adult things had changed drastically. No more flowers on May Day, just graffiti, violence, anarchy. I realize the Soviet Union May Day parade was the instigation for this change. How ironic it is that the Soviet Parade was so peaceful and here in America it is so violent.
Seattle, step up to the plate, pass an ordinance that you can’t cover your face in any parade or demonstration. Yes, that will blow it for Fremont and others with their fanciful masks, but these shameful cowards on May Day shouldn’t be allowed to be violent in obscurity! Maybe you can be creative in the wording of your ordinance.
Lynne Hallgren
Snohomish
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