So you would think a rental property located directly opposite
Ann Whalen subsidized housing near the Senior Center in the heart of downtown Amherst would be a tad more responsible with noise in the wee hours of the morning.
Not our young rowdies living at 28 Kellogg Avenue, however. And as a result five young adults arrested: four of them for both "noise" and "nuisance house" violations ($600 each) and one young lady for an open container of alcohol ($300).
Just to let you know: I emailed a Dean at UMass. asking if they knew about the former party house web site (with all of the F bombs). She responded that the University receives reports of the police actions taken.
ReplyDeleteI asked if any University action was taken, as in requiring an apology to the community.
My email stressed that I and my whole family are alumni and we don't want those people 'representing' UMass. Of course, the official statement is that most UMass. students are responsible people (as we all know).
Thanks for the party house reports. I hope that there is some way to change this situation for the better. But as graduation quickly approaches, the parties increase. -- Townie Nitwit
Yes we are definitely coming into the the "Mean Season".
ReplyDeleteI was struck by the night-and-day difference between how benevolent a large group of stoners can be compared to drunks.
And that has been the stoners' point all along. When stoned, they are non violent. I do believe that nobody should drive when stoned (or operate heavy equipment).
ReplyDeleteAnd I really do sympathize with parents going through the horror of their children's drug use. But most of us Babyboomers (at UMass anyway) who smoked pot did not go on to other drugs (except Viagra).
Larry, your fear about provoking a suicide eventually may come to pass. These are young people making mistakes, mistakes that already have high consequences (the university tatting to their parents) and how would you feel if someone pushed one of your daughters over the edge and to suicide?
ReplyDeleteYes, Larry, your little girls will make mistakes as teenagers, it is what it is to be human, and how would you feel if someone exploited their mistake to make them jump in front of the Vermonter (which has happened in this town) or fill their car full of Hydrogen Sulfide (which has happened in this town) or just intentionally wrap the car around a tree (which undoubedly has happened but we all called it an "accident").
How would you feel?????
Larry, what you are doing is not unlike publishing pictures of the body parts strewn around after a fatal OUI crash. One of the calls I made after 9-11 was with the Minuteman Newspaper and it was that we would not publish the pictures of the people jumping/falling to their death from the burning towers. We had them, we knew that maybe that would get the message across to the lefties (we had a really good one of a man and woman, both in their early 30's, falling together while holding hands).
We didn't do it.
And Larry, I suggest you might want to think about what you are doing here. As a parent, you can understand what it would do to you were one of your daughters to kill herself -- do you want to be responsible for another parent to have to deal with that?
You and I can disagree about if the UM students are human beings or not. The fact remains that they still have parents who love them as much as you love your daughters. I have personally prevented nine suicides and you don't know how close to the edge some of these kids are -- and what exactly is it that you are trying to accomplish?
The arrested kids likely will be suspended, do you really want them in body bags?
I did not publish their names and ages; if you pick up today's Gazette bottom front of the "break page" you will see that they did.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the kids should start a Facebook group: "F_ck the Gazette."
Ed, accountability is not "tatting"..."tattling"
ReplyDeleteAdults need to behave like adults. There are ramifications and responsibilities that come with wanting the privilege to live as an adult: lease, no supervision etc.
These "adults" have homes and parents who would not tolerate this type of behavior in their neighborhoods.
I was a college student in Amherst, we had a lot of fun and I went to more than my fair share of parties. however, I'm of the generation that was brought up to believe in RESPECT of others and respect of others property. I knew if I crossed certain lines, I would be held accountable.
If they do not want to be treated as adults in a community--accountable for their actions, they should stay on campus and live as supervised (loosely I admit) students and be accountable to the University/AC/Hampshire etc.
NO ONE causes another person to commit suicide. People who are unstable commit suicide. Even Phoebe Prince.
ReplyDeleteEveryone should understand that bad behavior carries consequences, college kids are no exception to this rule. And Larry, don't you dare back down from publishing the crap these kids do to the town. Ignore Ed or whatever his/her name is.
If I stop publishing it will not be because I backed down on anything.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, his name actually is Ed.
Maybe if Ed put down the water pipe for a semester or two he might graduate and be able to move on with his life.
ReplyDeleteEd you've voiced your opinion and we get it. You don't like the town and certainly made it clear you have no tolerance for townies. So get your freakin degree and get out for gods sake!
You complain and cry how once you get this imaginary degree your out of here. I personally don't think you have the ambition to move on and thus will be here or at some other school the rest of your life.
Would you please link to the Gazette article mentioned?
ReplyDeleteI would except the Gazette hides behind a paywall.
ReplyDeleteIt will also appear in this week's Amherst Bulletin available in print on Thursday morning and free online a day or so (amazingly) after that.
Thank you.
ReplyDeleteNo problem.
ReplyDeleteAnd now that I think about it, if you go to Google News and search under "extravanja" it will pull up the article "Seven ticketed for marijuana possession off the common in Amherst"
And towards the end of that brief article Mr. Merzbach mentions our rowdy party house at 28 Kellogg Ave daring to name names.
I'm pretty sure the Gazette paywall allows two free reads per day.
ReplyDeletewanting the privilege to live as an adult
ReplyDeleteThis - if you think about it - is chilling. Truly chilling....
As Americans, we have RIGHTS, not privileges. Inalienable rights, which can not ever be considered a "privilege" because they are based on our God-given rights as human beings. John Locke said that we have the right to life, liberty & property -- Jefferson changed "property" to "pursuit of happiness" because "property" had two meanings then much as "man" has two today.
If the ability of an adult is to be considered a privilege, then think of all of the other people to whom this privilege should be denied. We are going to need to lock up an awful lot of people who don't deserve the "privilege" of being permitted not to be locked up....
And where do we draw the line? Instead of just denying them the "privilege" of liberty, why don't we deny these "useless eaters" the "privilege" of life -- and just murder them like Hitler & Stalin did? Lets kill everyone in the Ann Whalen building because they are all non-productive "useless eaters" who don't "deserve" the "privilege" of life.
Like I said, a chilling comment...
And I am "ProLife" for a reason - and the above - combined with the reality that governmental murder is cheaper than medical care - is it....
I was a college student in Amherst, we had a lot of fun and I went to more than my fair share of parties.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been to one in this century. But I can come back from the WNEC law library and be hassled by the SchmuckPolice.
Mass law is that a license plate must be visible at 60 feet - look it up. Cop is 100+ feet off the road (in a really great place to observe reckless/drunk drivers, but the evening is still young, none out yet, so he pulls out and stops me.
The disgrace to his uniform starts accusing me of being the person who eluded him earlier that night - general "conduct unbecoming" as soon as he realizes I am not a townie and even though I eventually suggest that he simply "call WNEC security, they have my name & plate number, they know when I arrived there and when I left there and if I was in Springfield, I couldn't have been here" -- even though I calmly suggest this, he still accuses me of this.
Eventually he abates and says something about how he stopped me because he couldn't see my plate at "Six Thousand Feet" (that's more than a mile) and that I could go.
I say that "I hope you find that person you are looking for" and he says that "there wasn't anybody." In other words, the whole thing was abuse to keep this n***** from using the public streets of town, to keep me "in my place"....
You folk would not have tolerated this in the '70s....
and thus will be here or at some other school the rest of your life.
ReplyDeleteI fully intend to be -- and to be running things. Not UMass, which I consider a dying institution at this point, one mortally wounded but not yet deceased. But I will be at some school the rest of my career which -- since your generation destroyed Social Security, will mean the rest of my life as my generation will never be able to retire....
But I will be someone of significance in education, on that you can be assured. Not that I care what your opinion is, you C.A.N. -- and if we get just one truly conservative governor in this state -- which we haven't had since Silent Cal -- and it will be you whom we need to worry about....
Ed, my point, is that if one wants to live as an adult, then one must also take the consequences of being an adult and not resort to the
ReplyDelete"we're students (read"children") who deserve special treatment."
You defend the behavior of these students yet in another section of this blog condemn a young man who owns up this his behavior.
Why? Are the students who were given fines adults? You state that it is a right to be an adult...ok, fair enough. It's also a right of the neighbors and the town to expect adult behavior.
You often state your disdain for the university at which you are earning a degree. Why are you there?
Harry T
Well said Harry!
ReplyDeleteEd, I really hope they do a detailed search on you when you apply for this signifigant position in education. Because you my friend are riding the fine line of racist. Unfortunatly you've already posted enough ramblings that would leave me questioning your abilities as an educator.
ReplyDeleteQuestioning Ed's abilities? Really?
ReplyDeleteAmazing how an interesting point like the real differences of effects on the individual and on the surrounding community of people under the influence of alcohol vs. pot gets lost on this wind bag, Ed.
Let's get back to the point:
Alcohol is America's favorite drug. It does way more damage to the individual, the family, friendships and lives than marijuana.
For all the data hounds in the audience, and we know how everyone loves data, there are mountains of evidence pointing to the damage alcohol causes.
And very little on this score about marijuana.
Don't talk to me, America, about the dangers of pot when you are so deep into the bottle.
"Legalize it! Don't criticize it!"
Peter Tosh