Amherst downtown 6/14, aka Flag Day
On the night of September 10, 2001, less than 12 hours before the world changed, the Amherst Select Board had closed the contentious public hearing concerning 29 commemorative flags flying in the downtown and they were discussing the matter among themselves before coming up with a list of days to commemorate.
After Anne Awad had grudgingly stated she would support only July 4th for the extra flags to fly Select Board chair Carl Seppala, when giving his fuller list, said in a somewhat exasperated tone, "Well, they do call it Flag Day."
Flag Day probably gets a little lost since it comes smack in the middle of two flag centric events: Memorial Day and July 4th. Sort of like having a birthday a little too close to Christmas.
Any day, however, is as good as another when it comes to honoring our flag -- and the boundless sacrifice it represents.
16 comments:
A nice reminder that flags do fly in Amherst.
Does the Town of amhert let it's residents fly the American Flag year round. Our soldiers, fire and police personnel have the flag on their uniforms. I don't get why only on Memorial Day and July 4th And September 11th when our country fell apart only on certain anniversaries. Aren't you people Proud to be Americans. "Were at least I know I'm free". Semper Fi to my Family, Friends, God and Country. Remember my Flag still stands for Freedom. The U.N flag which flies outside of town hall doesn't.
Steve,
Yes. Anyone can fly the flag in Amherst on any day or every day they want. And the town of Amherst has the flag flying every day at town hall too. Keep it flying!
Yes, but the commemorative flags are allowed to fly only on six annual occasions.
This coming 9/11 NOT being one of them.
Kind of a disgrace.
Aren't they flown on every 5th anniversary of 9/11?
Yes, hence my use of the term on six ANNUAL occasions.
This coming 9/11 not being a "milestone" anniversary, they will not be allowed to fly.
My theory is 9/11 deserves to commemorated, honored, remembered every year.
You know, like Memorial Day, which is a somber day of remembrance.
Yes Larry, I will never forget the evening of September 10, 2001 -- and at the time, I very much believed what I said that night.
I don't anymore.
What happened to Dylan & Steve was but the latest example -- everything that flag used to stand for, or at least I thought it stood for, no longer exists.
This country no longer champions equality, due process, civil liberties or even the rule of law. We've devolved into a caste system of quite arbitrarily-defined identity groups, a country where everything is determined on the basis of racial & sexual identity.
Where reality is an illusion, where your gender is whatever you want it to be.
We used to believe in the "rule of law" -- Nixon was forced to resign because "no man is above the law." Yet various men & women at UMass are permitted to violate the law -- to commit criminal offenses with total impunity. When I point out that "punishable by up to six month's imprisonment" kinda means you aren't supposed to be doing something and merely ask said administrators to stop doing it, they turn my life into a living hell.
While having your political enemies arrested on bogus charges is something one equates with "Banana Republics", I saw the Republicans do it in Downtown Amherst one night.
When Judge Payne finally figured out what the young man was accused of, and that it would require the ability to walk through a solid masonry wall -- the substantial fire-resistant wall of what had once been the garage of a Chrysler dealership -- he was not happy.
In open court, Judge Payne advised the ADA of "the wisdom of" never returning to his courtroom with that charge -- I have a copy of the Nolle Prosequi
I was the faculty adviser to the UMass Republican Club in everything but faculty status (although I had it elsewhere) and I considered it my duty to see that the organization and its members were treated fairly. You know, that "due process" and "equal protection" stuff that this country and our flag used to stand for.
The Romney campaign didn't much like the fact that I was making it more difficult for them to destroy the lives of their political enemies so they sent the PIKE fraternity and the UMPD after me. As a result, I doubt that I will ever again enjoy the Fourth of July (or trust another police officer) in this or any other lifetime.
I'm doing OK in an economy when many others aren't -- but the love I once had for my county and it's flag -- that's gone.
Ed, thank goodness you managed to turn this post into something about you. They said it couldn't be done, but you did it!
Larry, what did Steve Akalis do?
Use a technical term of his profession -- the proper term and I believe one that he'd have to know in order to get his license.
By contrast look at some of the things that were done in the Jason Vassell matter -- notwithstanding the fact that 268 MGL 13A makes it a criminal offense to picket a courthouse, lots of UM employees were not only doing this, but organizing it.
There were AfroAm Professors threatening to organize race riots in Northampton should the trial be permitted to occur.
And as to riots, look at what the UM faculty as a whole did when Andy Card was to be awarded an honorary degree, and look at what they did at commencement.
You know, I'd like to see him and/or Dylan sue that girl who posted the petition, sue her for defamation, libel & intentional infliction of emotional distress.
If she isn't 18, sue her as a minor (i.e. sue her parents) -- except in America of today, I doubt there'd be a lawyer willing to bring that case.
There'd be a thousand if it was the other way around -- but not this way. And that's why I don't have the patriotism I once did.
September 11th falls on a Thursday which also happens to be Patriots Day. Semper Fi
And proud to be an American
On my job applications, were it says race I no longer check any box. For does it really matter what color I am. I'm American born and breed
Oh, Jesus. This fuckface is going to comment on everything now? You just made an allegiance with a very questionable person, per usual. He's like your new Joe the Plumber.
You mean the stand up guy unafraid to leave his name?
Why is that so important to you? So you can google me (and probably do your infamous public records request trick) to dig up dirt and slander me? You must be kidding. Some of us have reputations to defend.
"Oh, Jesus. This fuckface is going to comment on everything now? You just made an allegiance with a very questionable person, per usual. He's like your new Joe the Plumber."
LOL!
Talk about calling the kettle
~black~.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W91EWQv4Fc
Steve might not say it.
Larry might not say it.
But ~I~ will say it.
Fck
off.
-Squeaky Squeaks
"YOU sir, will die a 1,000 deaths."
Amen Larry!
-Squeaky Squeaks
On my job applications, where it says race I no longer check any box.
Steve, I hate to tell you this but if you don't answer anything, the bureaucratic regulations mandate that they check off a box for you.
I much prefer to check off "other" and if I'm ever asked what race it is that I am, I intend to answer "human."
But the stuff that's going on in education today -- what happened to your family, the "Alice in Wonderland" world of the "therapeutic state", and the general replacement of individual liberty with tribal rights and bureaucratic control -- it's why I am really worried about the future of a republic that you and others so nobly defended.
The very word "lockdown."
Remember when it was PRISONS that were "locked down"? When students used to joke about school being a "prison" and how they were "locked inside" -- they now actually ARE.
You were set up, I have no doubt -- and there is no way you could have resolved the ambush without giving grounds for termination. If you claimed to have fixed something that wasn't broken (i.e. merely turned something on), they'd have gotten you for "malingering." If you told her she had to have it turned on but not why, they'd have gotten you for something along the lines of sexism and/or racism because you conveyed the perception she wasn't bright enough to understand why. You were set up.
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