UN flag flies 24/7, 365 days a year in front of Amherst Town Hall
One of the earlier political "firsts" for the loquacious little town of Amherst, trumpeted nationwide via the Associated Press (because print media loves "firsts") a generation ago, is still visible to this very day flying only yards from Town Hall.
And still talked about by Town officials.
Last Monday, with little comment, the Amherst Select Board voted unanimously to declare October 24 "United Nations Day" in Amherst.
Just as 40 years ago Amherst went all out to celebrate the anniversary (started in 1948) by becoming the fist "town" in America to "permanently" fly the UN Flag at their seat of government.
New York City and Los Angeles also fly the UN flag but they are, um, cities.
The late 60s and early 70s was a time of nationwide political upheaval -- especially in "college towns" -- mainly focused on the Vietnam War. Thus the anti-war movement found fertile ground in Amherst, "where only the h is silent".
And to this day, in town center, the weekly vigil for peace still holds court starting at high noon.
The fly the blue flag movement started with Mrs. Robert McGarrah, "housewife" of a UMass professor (naturally), who collected over 500 signatures in November, 1972 on a petition presented to the Amherst Select Board. The first week of December the SB voted unanimously to approve the idea.
11/12/72
And as we know from the festering controversy over flying commemorative American flags on 9/11, which is banned four-out-of-every-five years, the Select Board alone has final say over the public way.
Ironically the petition stated: "We can be patriotic citizens of the United States and a patriotic country in the world community."
Patriotic indeed.
17 comments:
Figures some Amhies (H is silent) would worship a useless world order organization over their own soil.
Speaking of "false flags"...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjZDQtqNT5s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUbCoh5KPIA
Oh, but you wont ever hear em apologizing downtown. Will you?
Cause they're
~never~
wrong.
Are they?
(Amherst, malignant and moronic to the fking core...)
Does the precedent of _Johnson v.Texas_ apply to the burning of the UN flag as well?
Just askin....
We are all citizens of the world. Keep it flying.
And.. you can be a patriotic citizen of The United States without feeling the need to plaster the downtown with flags hanging from every available flagpole in commemoration of any possible occasion. The United Nations flag is NOT the only flag that flies from official flagpoles of The Town of Amherst, or your concern might have merit.
Actually not nearly "every available flagpole" if by flagpole you mean the utility poles from which the commemorative flags fly.
And since the Select Board only allows the commemorative flags up for six annual occasions, your statement "in commemoration of any possible occasion" is also a tad over the top.
Even for a CAN.
Larry, I'm SOOO glad you have a (relatively) harmless obsession with this flag issue.
Imagine how much REAL damage you might hope to visit on your fellow Americans if you openly advocated for genocide and slavery as the True American Legacy.
I apologize if this gives your megalomaniacal ego any encouragement.
It does not.
Of course if you had the balls to sign your name, it might.
Your obsession with flags is almost equal to that of your preoccupation with testicles.
ick
There you go again, CAN.
There are over 30,000 people that live in Amherst and I do not appreciate your implying that they are not patriotic.
Keep that in mind with Select Board candidates in the annual town election March 25.
I don't believe in questioning their patriotism either.
You must have missed that bumper sticker "Question Authority".
LK conflates Question Authority
with
Question Reality
as
he claims that the character of courage resides in one's testicles
With men anyway. In women it's in their hearts and minds.
It's very amusing how the self-appointed defenders of high internationalist ideals immediately resort to sniggering gutter insults as soon as anyone points out how absurd they are.
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