Susan shared with her readers a post about the wonderful parade that she had recently attended. It wasn’t a normal parade — in fact, it was a parade by people with disabilities.

It was a wonderful parade - the best ever. But I am disappointed.

I have no idea how many people were in the parade - countless. People in chairs, scooters, on crutches, with dogs, on bikes, sitting on floats, and walking. Everyone is happy! People are excited to meet friends they know from far away - or close by. New people hook up with like-minded agendas.

I was impressed with the float ahead of us. It was a group of people with various Hispanic ties - most, but far from all had developmental disabilities. Latin music was played full blast which gave everyone the inspiration to dance. Everyone held flags - many from the country of their origin. Somebody gave Teddy a flag - which interestedly enough just happened to be from Puerto Rico where his birth grandparents were born.

This year I noted two things - Justin Dart was brought up many times (well-deservedly so) and appears to have clearly taken the role of the creator of the current flavor of disability pride. And Not Dead Yet has taken over as the most popular self-identifying slogan. As a self-identifier it seems to represent the idea if that we do not want to live in institutions like nursing homes - that is where people go to die and we are not ready to be dead yet, nor are we dead yet - so support us living in the community.

The most impressive part though was the entertainment. I can’t say I liked all of it, but there were some really stellar performances. A dance troupe that was people of mixed abilities, including 2 wheelchair users was stunning. There was a discernible change in the crowd when these women danced. No one could keep their eyes off their fluid graceful movements. There was a group that sings using sign language. It was beautiful to watch and makes me regret not keeping up with or improving my signing. Even without understanding the signs, you understood the intent of the music.

All in all it was as is always a wonderful, energizing place to be. It still does not have the feel of a national parade like I wish it would - more and more people and organizations are coming from afar, but not enough to make it feel like we have come along way to travel 240 miles.

Have you ever attended a parade by people with disabilities? If you have, would you please share with us some of you pictures? :)