Complaints like these should be relegated to the Ministry of Silly Walks.
Posted on 01/28/2009 11:13:11 AM PST by SERKIT
(CNN) -- An Ohio man who was suspended as the drum major of a band for giving President Obama a nod during last week's inaugural parade is calling it quits. John Coleman resigned from the Cleveland Firefighters Memorial Pipes & Drums a week after the parade in Washington. Publicity about his suspension had gotten to be too much, he told CNN affiliate WEWS.
"It's come to a point where I don't want embarrassment anymore between the pipe band and myself," Coleman, who is a firefighter, told WEWS on Tuesday.
Coleman was seen during the nationally televised January 20 parade nodding toward the new president while marching with the band. A few steps later, he appeared to wave briefly.
He told WEWS that as the band was marching past the grandstand where Obama was sitting, he made eye contact with the president.
"Contact was made with our eyes both together and he smiled and waved at the band," he told the station. "And just as a gesture, I nodded my head. I gave him a slight wave and went on."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
They can choose to enforce whatever rules they follow, I don’t have a beef about that. Just don’t be a rules-are-rules, zero tolerance non-thinking kind of guy. YOu know darn well that there are always exceptions to rules and that some rules are enforced much more than others. Gimme a break. You don’t think if the rest of the squad came under microscope scrutiny they would not have found ANY other technical rule violations that they could have gotten rid of someone?
“I want that hat .... “ Is that all you took away from this thread? I almost lost my coffee when I read your post.
I can always count on reason and logical thought from you.
I want that hat ...
Yeah, then you could get a job at Pizza Hut as a delivery boy. lol...
Well, you can say that if you want, but he has been with the band for 17 years. Marching in the inaugeration most likely was the highlight or should have been the highlight of his career with the band. No matter what we may think of 0bama. This organization almost didn’t even make it there without fundraising.
Where was "The Stork" when we needed him?
Eyes left ... noted zero, eyes front, then left again .. (thinking perhaps he should salute .. in a sense, he WAS in uniform) and gave a half-hearted salute (probably NOT a zero supporter), eyes front and continued marching.
All eye and hand gestures were in keeping with military bearing .... because THAT'S what we're talking about here ... Not rules and/or regs ... but military bearing.
And the man bore himself as well as any other LEADER could/would to an empty suit.
THAT'S what I saw.
n' I'm stickin' TO it !
And so, in 17 years he didn’t know what their protocol was?
(I don't know what that has do with anything, I just like the phrase...)
He’s too damn fat to be a fireman.
Sadly, the Stork offed himself back in 1980.
Holy Smokes! Is that Goldfinger or Phatbastard?
Well, you outrank me, sir. (-:
All I’m saying is that if the organization has a rule about not acknowledging anyone or anything while in formation, and he violated that rule, it’s completely within the organization’s authority to enforce its own rule. I didn’t intend to convey that every rule must be obeyed to the letter by everybody everywhere allatime. That’s what discretion is for; HOWEVER, it’s the folks in charge of the DABC who exercise the discretion, not we. Us. Whatever.
Colonel, USAFR
See my post 36 - I don’t think we have any baseline disagreements. And Mahatma, remember that anybody who outranks you and uses it to his/her advantage ain’t worth following.
Colonel, USAFR
I'm an extremely sick individual .. ask Mrs. Eggman if you don't believe me
I agree with you. Your initial post came across a little heavy on the rules-are-rules we will not tolerate any violation, kind of way. I am also sure they also could have found other violations, however small, that other members did that day while marching that could have been something they could have enforced the rules on.
He needs 2 straps — one for each chin....
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