It wasn’t just any parade. It was the Veterans Day Parade in Hartford, and the fact that The Courant did not have a write-up about the state’s most public display of gratitude to its veterans was simply disrespectful, according to two polite but disappointed readers who called last week.
Neither seemed to really want an explanation of the decision not to send a reporter to write about the parade last Sunday. “I’m sure The Courant will come up with some reason, but it’s not enough,” one reader said.
I was interested in knowing, however.
Assistant Managing Editor Lynne DeLucia explained, “I decided not to cover the Veterans Day Parade because we had a wonderful story about the parade and veterans from Afghanistan by [Magdalene] Perez in advance of the parade. … It was on the Connecticut cover in all of the editions of the Friday paper. Because I had two cop reporters and one general assignment reporter [last] Sunday, I thought that covering the parade with a photo was sufficient.”
One might be willing to accept that the front-page picture Monday of Martha Nolan, a member of the Windsor Fife and Drum Corps, holding a flag at the parade was enough of a representation of the event. But after perusing The Courant’s past coverage of the parade, I came away thinking the news staff should have done more.
Since 2000, when the Veterans Day Parade was revived after nearly a decade, The Courant has reported its symbolic importance with stories beforehand, stories afterward and front-page photos. In 2002, as the United States prepared for the war in Iraq, coverage was extensive, with multiple photos and stories.
The event is billed as the largest parade in New England. Given that the number of spectators has grown from 8,000 in 2000 to more than 20,000 in 2007, according to organizers, some readers have come to expect The Courant to provide a little more than a nod the day after the parade. At least courant.com offered a series of photos.
“The fact that they don’t have the resources to cover such an important event tells me more and more that The Courant has lost it,” said David Lamenzo of Bloomfield, who was an infantry officer with the 101st Airborne Division in the Vietnam War.
“They really insulted the veterans and the sponsors of the parade,” he said. “It’s just sad to see such an insult.”
It should be noted that one of the sponsors was The Courant.
Monday’s Connecticut section did report on Jewish war veterans featured in an exhibit that opened last Sunday at the George J. Sherman and Lottie K. Sherman Museum of Jewish Civilization at the University of Hartford. In addition, DeLucia assured me that The Courant’s news pages this weekend will have numerous stories acknowledging the service of veterans.
Lamenzo didn’t find much consolation in the promise. “I bled all over Vietnam for you,” he said. “The Courant needs to recognize what’s important to the community and what we veterans contribute to that community.”
