The business flunkies organizing Sioux Falls’s July 4th parade are celebrating 250 years of American freedom by restricting political speech in public space. Indivisible 605 says the Sioux Falls Independence Day Parade Committee, run by the two-year-old private charity Sioux Falls Betterment Foundation, has denied Indivisible’s application to join the parade.
Indivisible 605 said in its parade entry application that its entry would consist of a row of walkers “holding our organization name on a banner with American flag bearers on either side.” Behind them would be “several rows of walkers holding signs stating groups/people/American ideals that we support, such as Teachers/Education, Health Care Workers, Veterans, Law Enforcement, Farmers, Postal Workers, the Constitution, etc.” Indivisible said they’d be decked out in red, white, and blue and would have four to eight flag bearers.
The SFIDPC smelled politics in this patriotism and refused Indivisible 605’s entry:
Good afternoon, Indivisible 605.
Sorry for the lateness. This is an all-volunteer effort.
After much discussion, the Committee has declined your request for being a part of America’s 250th
Independence Day Parade.After many years of not having the parade, and, sadly, given the nature of America’s continuing divide, politically, it was thought best by the Committee to decline having PACs or any other kind of overt political protest group in the Parade.
While we allow politicians of all persuasions, as well as both the Minnehaha County Democratic and Republican Parties, the event is meant to be a civic one, and not an overtly political one. There are, of course, times and avenues and procedures for those as well. That is why no less than Michael Fitzmaurice, a decorated CMH (Congressional Medal of Honor) recipient is our Parade Grand Marshal, rather than Senator Thune and/or Congressman Johnson, etc. And our main focus is to showcase America’s 250th birthday as a unifying event, independent of politicians, political movements, or whomever is in power at a given moment in time.
We thank you for your request and are sorry but we must decline for now.
Have a good day, and thank you so much.
America’s 250th Sioux Falls Independence Day Parade Committee [email from SFIDPC to Indivisible 605 organizers, 2026.05.29].
Indivisible 605 responds that its political and community service activities are rooted in the same fundamental American ideals that the committee cherishes:
Thank you for your thoughtful email correspondence. We understand that there might be concerns about the tone and tenor of our proposed entry for this year’s parade, based upon our involvement in several No Kings rallies over the past 15 months. There is no doubt that our organization’s board of directors and most of our online community’s members have differences of opinion with some of the policies and practices of our current national administration, and to that end we have at times exercised our constitutional First Amendment rights by making our voices heard and opinions known at our legally permitted rallies, on social media and by other means.
We have also gone to great lengths to coordinate and collaborate with the Sioux Falls Police Department to assure that all of our rallies and other events are peaceful and safe for everyone in the vicinity. We have always obtained assembly permits from the SFPD, and sound permits from the Parks Department whenever we’ve included amplified speakers and/or music. We value and treasure our wonderful working relationship with the SFPD, and have received many compliments from members of SFPD.
You may or may not be aware that we are also a community service organization. We have organized and sponsored fundraisers and/or collection drives for many other public service organizations, including Feeding South Dakota, Midwest Street Medicine, South Dakota Voices for Peace, St. Francis House, and Sioux Falls Mutual Aid. Supporting community services and organizations such as these is a central pillar of our organization’s mission.
Our intentions for the Independence Day Parade have been to look beyond our differences of opinion with current national leaders and to express our support for our flag and our nation’s traditional values in a very positive spirit of unity. We consider the Pledge of Allegiance to be a critically important and traditional American value. We take it very seriously, and the theme of our parade entry that would be prominently displayed with signage is a direct quote of the final words of that Pledge: “With Liberty and Justice For All” [Indivisible, 605, email to SDIDPC, 2026.06.02].
Indivisible 605 has even offered to cooperate with the committee and vet its free speech:
Some of our walkers will carry signage with these words. Some others will carry standard American flags, and a third group will carry individual signs, each with messaging that will express our support for important segments of the patchwork quilt of American citizenry: “We Support Families”, “We Support Veterans”, and likewise Farmers, Law Enforcement, Health Care Workers, Educators, LGBTQ+ Citizens, Women, Immigrants, and Indigenous Americans. Our plans include NO signs or other messaging or attire etc to suggest any measure of dissent or protest.
With the above clarifications in mind, we are respectfully requesting a reconsideration of our application. We ask that you contact Sgt. Cody Shulz of the Sioux Falls Police Department as a reference with respect to our excellent collaborative relationship with the SFPD. His office phone is 605-978-6821 and his email is cody.shulz@siouxfalls.gov.
We realize that we cannot practically identify and honor every significant subset of American citizenry to fully illustrate our “Liberty and Justice for All” theme, so the list of proposed sign messages above is admittedly incomplete. Given that it cannot and will not include every conceivable subset of all Americans, we are certainly willing to entertain changes or modifications to our proposed signs list if your committee finds any of the listed groups unworthy, objectionable, or in conflict with the patriotic theme of the parade.
We are very willing to meet with any members of your committee at your convenience to respond to any other questions or potential concerns. We are also willing to have your committee representative(s) preview all elements of our parade entry materials and entourage in the staging area prior to the parade start time, and to make any adjustments in our public presentation that might be deemed appropriate to be fully consistent with the parade’s patriotic theme. I have attached a rough draft sketch of how we envision our walking volunteers and patriotic messaging being arranged as we process through the parade route.
In summary, we would love to make this work to your satisfaction, and to make a meaningful contribution to this exciting celebration of our nation’s 250th birthday. We would profoundly appreciate your reconsideration, and in order to allow sufficient time for planning and preparation we would be very grateful to receive your final decision and notification by June 10.
Thank you all very much for your voluntary commitment to our nation’s 250th birthday celebration! [Indivisible 605, 2026.06.02]
Dominik Dausch reports that the parade committee has also barred a conservative group advocating a Constitutional rewrite. The committee, chaired by Aaron Levisay, says this is a private parade and they can ban anyone and any message they want:
In its statement, parade organizers say the event is… “organized by a private committee and not the City of Sioux Falls, participation in this event is at the sole discretion of the committee. We understand that some may disagree with our decision, but we stand by it” [Kristen Haskell, “Indivisible 605 Denied Spot in Independence Parade,” KELO-TV, 2026.06.19].
The Sioux Falls Betterment Foundation invokes the radical protestors known as our Founding Fathers in describing its purpose on its grant application form:
The Sioux Empire Betterment Foundation was officially launched in early 2024, but the spirit of this organization was born with the birth of our great nation. The founding fathers had a dream to give “We The People” something better than we had ever had before. The Sioux Empire Betterment Foundation would like to offer that same sentiment today. The Sioux Empire Betterment Foundation strives to help the amazing people of the Sioux Empire live better lives by funding things that will help make our area a better place to live, work and visit [Sioux Falls Betterment Foundation, grant application form, retrieved 2026.06.22].
But the foundation’s parade committee rejects real revolutionary and participatory fervor in favor of the curious position that only formal politicians get to parade for America and not regular folks who’ve come together to advocate for various causes:
Because we are a first-time group running a formerly municipal event, we had a huge learning curve in trying to organize the parade. After setting up the signup sheet online, we eventually realized that we had to set rules for who could participate in the parade. The consensus was that we did not want this to be an occasion for partisan or ideological in-fighting but a moment for everyone in the community to come together to simply celebrate America.
Our ultimate decision was that while political parties and candidates for elected office would be welcome to join the parade, in the fine old American tradition, non-party groups that were set up specifically to advocate for policy positions, whether on the left or the right, would not be allowed to participate.
We have striven to apply this standard equally. Two political advocacy groups on different sides of the spectrum were denied, as neither were representatives of an official political party nor an elected official or candidate.
Unfortunately, our decision was not effectively communicated to some groups that ended up applying to be in the parade. We regret that they did not know our policy ahead of time, or that we didn’t communicate it well enough, and we also understand that some believed this was a city-run event, which it is not [Sioux Falls Independence Day Parade Committee, statement, 2026.06.19].
At a May 14 press conference, SFIDPC chair Aaron Levisay and “partners” state historian Ben Jones and Sioux Falls councilman Rich Merkouris announced the parade’s grand marshal would be Vietnam veteran and Medal of Honor recipient Michael J. Fitzmaurice:
“I can’t imagine a more unifying figure than [Fitzmaurice] being our Parade Marshal,” said Levisay, a fellow veteran and local historian who committed earlier this year to resurrect the city’s patriotic parade.
“[Fitzmaurice] is one of the state’s only remaining Medal of Honor recipients from Vietnam,” Levisay said. “He’s such a humble, wonderful man” [Angela George, “Fourth of July Grand Marshal Announced,” Sioux Falls Argus Leader via Press Reader, 2026.05.24].
Fitzmaurice was one of 15 Medal of Honor recipients who endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 election. How is endorsing Trump any more unifying than marching for farmers, cops, teachers, women, and Indians?
The Sioux Falls Betterment Foundation is preaching a narrow sort of patriotism. The Founding Fathers weren’t candidates or party members when they signed the Declaration of Independence. They were much more like Indivisible 605, a bunch of citizens uniting to speak up against kings and unrepresentative government. They went on to be much more like the Convention of States folks, composing not one but two governing charters, first the Articles of Confederation, and then, when that document turned out not to work, a whole new Constitution. If a July 4 parade can include political candidates and formal parties and be led by a man who campaigned for Trump, it can include regular citizens who band together to make their country live up to its ideals.
SD tried to silence groups during Vietnam, too.
Quite simply, they’ve created “martyr syndrome”.
This won’t end well for Sioux Falls.
Purple Purple Purple