Today is the wonderful, splendorous, life-celebrating Israel Day parade down Fifth Avenue. I go every year and I love it. The nazis go also and try to bring down the happiness and ebullience, but they are like so many gnats. No one cares.
The NY Post is running a special section on the Israel Day parade. AFDI/SIOA took the back cover -- the ad that Seattle Metro, San Francisco BART, and NYC Transit, cowards that they are, would not run.
Here is other fantab parade stuff with an unhappy ending: the Obama administration refused to let this man in the country. He was denied entry.
They must be dancing to a different beat.
A Haitian salsa champion who returned to the stage after losing his leg in last year's massive earthquake is being denied the chance to come to New York to show off his skills
He was scheduled to appear at the parade here
Trapped for three days last year in the rubble of Haiti's devastating earthquake, all George Exantus could think about was doing the salsa on a brightly-lit stage.
For him, dancing was life or death, and even after being rescued and having his right leg amputated below the knee, Exantus dreamed of the day he'd be back in step.
With the help of a team of Israeli doctors, Exantus received a state-of-the-art prosthetic and months of intense rehabilitation.
Now, Exantus is not only able to dance again. He looks like he hasn't missed a beat.
The miracle dancer will show off his skills in New York Sunday at Manhattan's annual Celebrate Israel Parade.
After the event, Exantus will dance in a concert in Central Park, the culminating twist on his road to recovery.
"The will to dance is what kept my spirits up," Exantus told the Post. "I did not think I would live to see another day. The whole experience was scary and frantic. By the grace of God am I only here today."
The catastrophic, 7.0-magnitude earthquake that killed 220,000 people and left 1.5 million Haitians homeless Jan. 12, toppled Exantus' apartment building, and pinned the dancer's feet and left hand under cement blocks for three days.
"I was praying a lot to be rescued," Exantus said. "I slept. I was very hot, very sweaty. I had a feeling I was going to die."
Read the rest.
Haitian Earthquake Amputee & U.S. Senator Menendez Denied by U.S. Embassy in Haiti:
Champion Salsa King Was to Dance on a Float at Sunday's Celebrate Israel Parade in NYC
