Who in Iowa goes to a parade to be stampeded by horses?

The Fourth of July parade in Iowa's Bellevue was upended when runaway horses trampled 24 people, killing one and injuring the other 23. It is said to have to do with the bridle of one horse rubbing another. The driver lost control and the rest is history.

Video tape.

See also July 4th Horse Stampede Saddens Iowa from St. Cloud, Minnesota by Mike Bryant

Already I can hear the tort reform drummers beating about our poor parades complaining that if the 23 injured and one dead spectator can sue the sky will fall in on every parade in the WORLD! Damn the torpedoes we need parades to be real Americans! Anyone suggesting a lawsuit is crazy.

Well that's exactly what I'm going to suggest. After all who considers going to a parade to get killed or maimed by a stampede of horses? Hell, no one does. To those who say horses do unexpected things I say, so what, who cares and what difference does it make that a horse acts without reason? The animal that acted without control was entered into a parade and within a few feet of people sitting in lawn chairs sipping lemonade and eating jelly donuts.

Think this is the first time horses have stampeded the crowd at a parade?

If the measure of when a lawsuit should be filed is what works for the entertainment of those spectators who aren't trampled then what is the filing standard when a pit bull rips the face off of an infant? Aren't those pit bulls thought by some to be America's poster pet signifying independence of the American pit bull owners? Give the pit bull owners a side arm and they can be enlisted to shoot out-of-control horses.

Let's have a parade of pit bulls and other vicious animals we consider part of the American culture. How about a herd of buffalo, wouldn't they make a cool parade. One thousand stampeding buffalo trampling everything and everyone in sight along hometown America. Or how about sharpshooters with guns that can take out elephants traipsing along the parade route just in case an animal steps out of line; that would work. Is anyone old enough to remember elephants in parades? Do you know why you no longer see them in parades?

You see it doesn't matter what you and I think is American or un-American. When it's you that gets trampled and then maimed or your spouse or child killed it's all about doing what is right by them; and that is what is an integral part of the American tapestry.

Do otherwise and you might as well have your next 4th of July parade in Red Square.

One killed, 23 injured after spooked horses trample crowd at Bellevue parade, July 4, 2010

UPDATE: One dies after horses' rampage at Iowa July 4 parade - A pair of runaway horses in harness crashed into a Fourth of July parade float and collapsed, ending a rampage that injured nearly two dozen people and killed one, people at the parade said Monday. July 5, 2010

Horses take off, injure 24 people at Bellevue parade - Two runaway horses raced along a Fourth of July parade route in a small Mississippi River town in eastern Iowa on Sunday, trampling children who were in the street picking up candy and injuring 24 people, police said.