but no, the way you make a bin laden float is to make a big parade float that looks kind of like osama bin laden (or some middle-eastern man, anyway), put him in a blood-splattered robe, put a leash around his neck lyndie england style, and then have uncle sam holding the leash.
at least, that's how they do it in chesterton, indiana.
Creators of the parade entry that took the ribbon for Most Patriotic at Chesterton's Fourth of July parade say they meant no offense by a figure of Uncle Sam leading a bound Osama bin Laden.
And they're frustrated that their main focus -- sending care packages to people in the armed services -- is being overshadowed by reaction to the parade display.
Getting the enemy was the message of the display, said Penny Kozinski, of Supporters of the Military, which sponsored the entry.
"We were just showing we were capturing the bad guys," Kozinski said. "We're going to catch the bad guys and then our guys can come home."
Kozinski's husband David is in Iraq with the Indiana Army National Guard and her son Micheal heads off for a third tour in Iraq with the Marine Corps later this month.
sending care packages to members of the armed services is a worthwhile cause. but putting him on a leash after the abu ghraib scandal? in a bloody robe? even if the float were so photo-realistic and there was no doubt it was osama, that's going a bit too far for what's supposed to be a family-friendly parade. and it's going way too far to win awards. and the float wasn't quite an exact likeness:
Eyebrows were raised because of confusion over who exactly the bound figure was supposed to be.
Kozinski said: "He was looking like an Arab, Iraqi, terrorist, whatever you want to call these people. I call them ragheads."
here's my two cents for penny kozinski: when you have a public relations disaster and you want to convince people that your organization is not made up of sick, racist scum of the earth, the first step is don't use racial slurs when talking to the press!¶
