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.

Related media coverage:

• Caught on Tape: Horses' Rampage at Parade Kills 1, Injures Others - Chicago Tribune
• July 4th Horse Stampede Saddens Iowa - Injury Board Blog Network: St. Cloud, MN

They will loudly proclaim that no one should sue! No way, no how; after all that would be un-American! Wouldn't it?

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 object that acted without control was entered into a parade and within a few feet of people sitting in lawn chairs. And, it was predictable.

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 bulls rip the face off of an infant? Aren’t they thought by some to be America’s pet signifying independence of the 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.

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 an integral part of the American tapestry is.

Do otherwise and you might as well have your next 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.