To quote our 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, “freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We don’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”

Rarely in our history has the importance of teaching our younger generations the values of Americanism and patriotism become more apparent.

“Honoring our veterans” is a term we often hear. I assure you that the honor was ours. What we do as veterans goes much deeper than that. It’s our way of teaching and reminding you of the importance of fostering these traits in our communities.

This year marks the fourth year of the creation of our annual Veterans Day parade  by the Miss-Lou Veterans Coalition, its honor guard and representatives of American Legion Posts 4 and 228 of Natchez.

Our Grand Marshall this year will be Oscar Seyfarth, lifelong resident of Natchez. Seyfarth has had a monumental influence on our veteran’s community for decades.

He retired from the U.S. Air Force as a master sergeant after 20 years of service to our country. Seyfarth served two tours in Vietnam. He was the founder and coordinator of Wreaths Across America at the Natchez National Cemetery for over 10 years and still remains active in the wreaths program and is currently vice chairman of the Miss-Lou Veterans Coalition.

The Miss-Lou Veterans Coalition honor guard will lead the parade. Our honor guard, which has served the Miss-Lou area for four years, represents every branch of the military and its members have served in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Kuwait war zones, and literally all over the world.

To truly serve our community, we’ve recently opened our membership in the honor guard to law enforcement officers. We welcome David Marchbanks of the Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office as our first representative of our law enforcement community.

When you see these very selfless veterans in uniform, think about this: In just a few short years, our honor guard has completed 105 colors presentations at civic events and area schools and conducted 44 full honors, military funerals at our local cemeteries. This is truly a selfless service to our communities and our veteran families and all have been free of charge. When you see them, thank them for their service to our community.

The parade will be at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 13.

The parade will assemble on North Broadway Street, travel up Main Street to Union Street, over to Franklin Street and will terminate at Canal Street, where the Boy Scouts of Natchez will conduct a flag retirement ceremony immediately after the parade on the grounds of the convention center. Our boy scouts have done an excellent job conducting this ceremony. for the past several years, with the helpful hand of scout leader Ricky Warren.

All entries in the parade are free of charge, although we will be having a float competition with a small entry fee. For information on the parade, entries and float competitors, contact Marianne Violette at 601-442-3109 or by email at mviolette@live.com.

Please come out and enjoy and bring the kids to teach them how it came to be that they are so free on this 300th anniversary of Natchez.
Rodney Violette is the chairman of theMiss-Lou Veterans Coalition.