01.20.2009 6:14 pm
Mowing down the competition
Post-Dispatch Springfield Bureau
WASHINGTON - One of Illinois’ dirty little secrets was exposed in the inaugural parade a little while ago, and for once, it has nothing to do with Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
Yes, as the world now knows — thanks to CNN’s explosive and controversial parade coverage today — Illinois does, in fact, boast a team of precision lawn-mower marchers. Some of us over in Illinois have been aware of it for years, but have diligently kept it quiet.
They’re called The World Famous Lawn Rangers from Amazing Arcola. That’s a town near Decatur, Ill., known primarily for producing brooms. The Lawn Rangers’ thing is to march in formation in parades, with their lawn mowers. They also wave brooms around.
(Before you decide that this sounds silly, you should know that the nationally syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry traveled across the country a few years ago just to join this group. As Barry would say, we’re not making that up.)
Anyway, if President Barack Obama’s goal in letting these beer-soaked lawn jockeys march in his parade was to help ease the political controversy his state has experienced lately, it might actually just make it worse. According to a recent report in the Chicago Tribune, there is a competing lawn mower marching group in the Chicago suburbs that’s pretty angry that they weren’t invited. “It kind of raised serious questions of what kind of vetting process they used,” one of the surburban mowers told the paper.
I think they threw down copies of birth certificates in front of the mowers.