A very noteworthy parade

Grace under pressure. That’s a nice thing to have.

I refer in this particular case to the 2023 Tet Parade in Westminster last week.

This has been an annual event observing the lunar new year, but there’s been a series of stumbles associated with it. A while back there was a controversy over whether gay rights groups could march in the parade and – if so –where?

A few years ago two rival groups held separate parades, one in Garden Grove and another in Westminster. This year, no non-profit group stepped up to continue the event, and so – at the last minute, with just a few weeks to spare and plan – the Westminster City Council assigned the task to city staff to pull a rabbit or cat out of a hat and stage the parade on the city’s dime.

(In China, this lunar new year is the “Year of the Rabbit.” For Vietnamese, it’s the “Year of the Cat.”)

Some folks expressed concern that the taxpayers should fit the bill for the parade.  But for me, the remarkable thing is how quickly and professionally City Manager Christine Cordon and city staff put this thing together, an event that has been widely praised.

It was a near miracle. Maybe the next near-miracle we can hope for is that the famously divided city council of Westminster can set aside its differences and begin to work toward bringing the community together after years of strife and bitterness.