Volunteer Hoosier notes that extremist venom rained on at least part of the Harvest Homecoming Parade.

If, as we have, you've found yourself wondering exactly what type of person would be so rude as to sanction hijacking New Albany's much-loved Harvest Homecoming Parade for the staging of obnoxious political theatrics, then there's must reading for you over at Volunteer Hoosier, in Process Matters, Redux, by Randy Smith.

Here are edited excerpts:

Boorishness is not usually the norm for Harvest Homecoming in Floyd County. At least that’s what folks tell me. You see, this was my first Harvest Homecoming parade, and I found it inspiring ...

... Yet, reports continue to filter in that some city residents, conditioned to the generation of random objections, saw in this unifying event an opportunity to pollute the atmosphere with personal animosity toward those with whom they purport to disagree ...

... But then, isn't that the hallmark of all those who hide in the bushes and launch anonymous diatribes, of all those who refuse to be accountable themselves? Why would they make any efforts to be accountable to their fellow citizens?

Hmm, we're guessing that this absence of acccountability might have something to do with a consistently (and proudly) stated contempt for knowledge and the the veracity of human reason, which are the foundation of our system of laws and of civil society itself.

The chest-thumping "mad as hell" element described by Randy insists on conjuring grandiose, conspiratorial and entirely imaginary scenarios of a local political situation so desperate that the rule of law can no longer be relied upon as a corrective, which in turn absolves those involved from responsibility when they take matters into their own hands and begin to perpetrate the real-world violence that they are, in fact, encouraging each and every day through their anonymous (and, yes, cowardly) incitements of hatred.

Shrug.

At the same time, while it's true that ill-tempered, semi-literate rantings uttered by hysterical folks with bags on their heads who are fostering a lynch mob mentality are in extremely bad taste, poor judgment isn't yet illegal.

It's sad, but almost certainly intentional, that an otherwise unifying community event like a parade was politicized and chosen as a forum to express hatred for those facets of the world that elude the ones whose veins bulge with anger.

Let's just hope that any children present were focused on the acceptable, fun activities taking place in the street, and not too closely observing the sidewalk behavior of self-loathing adults who should know better -- but choose not to, and take pride in their ignorance of civility.