This Was Not the Time

Memorial Day Weekend started off with the Perth Amboy Waterfront Arts Festival which was held on the picturesque Sadowski Parkway on 5/27/17. While there, we ran into people from out of town who said they heard about the Festival on Channel 12 News.  They said that in their travels, they’ve seen the exit sign for Perth Amboy many times, but based decided to visit based on the fun events spotlighted in the news report. They as many others were thrilled to see the Blackhawk helicopter.

Although the skies were overcast and rain was threatening, all the attendees that we saw were having a great time as well as the vendors.

As with a lot of festivals that happen around election years, politicians would mingle with the crowd along with their staff who distribute various political literature. That is expected.

But, what we don’t like are when politicians overstep their boundaries and wear out their welcome. This is when they use an event that is supposed to be non-political and turned into a personal campaign rally  I don’t care if they did it even for one minute. It was wrong and shameful.

At the Perth Amboy Waterfront Arts Festival, the signs and banners clearly said: “Art, Food, Music.”

In the print ad it also said, “Outrageous Music.” Of these two words, we find the actions of those politicians that went on stage was “Outrageous.” Plus, this was Memorial Day Weekend. As soon as I heard a denouncement of the President – whether you like Trump or not, that was not the time nor the place for politics.

I took a deaf ear to anything else that was said by them. I don’t even remember if they mentioned our fallen men and women in the armed forces.

As fans of the game of baseball, one can forgive a rookie when making a stupid mistake. A veteran should know better. This was bush-league play.

Some spectators came to watch the local bands who they follow perform told me how upset they were when those politicians got up on stage. One spectator had served in the military overseas and was very disheartened, especially when they started verbally bashing Trump of whom he supported. He said, “I didn’t come here for this.”

Although the skies didn’t open up with heavy rain, that moment on stage was a dark cloud and totally unnecessary.

We hope that venues like this are never used again for political purposes.

One has to realize that people need a breather from constant political discourse. And this was one weekend we were looking forward to at least one day to leave politics behind.

That’s what political rallies are for – not festivals.

C.M. & K.M.