Red/white/blue flag instead of just baby blue
For the first time in town history -- a whopping 43 years anyway -- the flagpole immediately in front of Town Hall flew a lone flag other than the United Nations flag, for which it was erected back in 1973.
A good cause of course: the 150th anniversary of the signing of the 13th Amendment to end the pernicious practice of slavery.
Besides being a good reminder that our sacred constitution can be amended, it is also fitting we pause to remember that slavery was once the routine here in our land of the free.
The flag that flew alone on the pole for barely 24 hours was an American flag but a reproduction of a vintage 1865 U.S. flag with only 36 stars.
The Select Board somewhat routinely allow various flags to fly -- Rainbow Flag, Puerto Rico, Black Liberation Flag, Children's memorial flag against child abuse, etc -- but always with the UN flag above them.
US flag protocol however clearly states the American flag never flies below that of any other entity. Unless of course it's an act of God.
UN Flag flies above Black Liberation flag, February this year
8 comments:
"When Anthony Johnson was released from servitude, he was legally recognized as a "free Negro." He developed a successful farm. In 1651 he owned 250 acres, and the services of four white and one black indentured servants. In 1653, John Casor, a black indentured servant whose contract Johnson appeared to have bought in the early 1640s, approached Captain Goldsmith, claiming his indenture had expired seven years earlier and that he was being held illegally by Johnson. A neighbor, Robert Parker, intervened and persuaded Johnson to free Casor.
Parker offered Casor work, and he signed a term of indenture to the planter. Johnson sued Parker in the Northampton Court in 1654 for the return of Casor. The court initially found in favor of Parker, but Johnson appealed. In 1655, the court reversed its ruling.[10] Finding that Anthony Johnson still "owned" John Casor, the court ordered that he be returned with the court dues paid by Robert Parker.
This was the first instance of a judicial determination in the Thirteen Colonies holding that a person who had committed no crime could be held in servitude for life.
Though Casor was the first person declared a slave in a civil case, there were both black and white indentured servants sentenced to lifetime servitude before him. Many historians describe indentured servant John Punch as the first documented slave in America, as he was sentenced to life in servitude as punishment for escaping in 1640. The Punch case was significant because it established the disparity between his sentence as a negro and that of the two European indentured servants who escaped with him (one described as Dutch and one as a Scotchman). It is the first documented case in Virginia of an African sentenced to lifetime servitude. It is considered one of the first legal cases to make a racial distinction between black and white indentured servants."
Black lives errrr
matter?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtRaG_bokds
NNNNNope.
-Squeaky Squeaks
p.s. Yeah whatever man.
Thank you for always paying such close attention and giving regular coverage to the occasions of flag raising, lowering, and the related protocols in this town and in the Commonwealth, Larry.
Amherst citizens, like most liberals, are more interested in virtue-signalling and symbology than reality, thus we get the rainbow, Puerto Rican and other flags, and the righteous waving of the UN flag. Given what the UN has come to represent - hypocrisy, corruption, and anti-semitism - it would be best of that flag were never raised again in Amherst (or in New York!).
Privately owned flagpole? Can you say more? Thanks.
"the privately owned flagpole..." Is that right? The flagpole is "privately owned"? By whom?
My 2 cents- as has been stated and elaborated on before- the US Flag should be accorded highest honors (i.e., displayed to the most right, be raised first and lowered last, etc.)
(This whole discussion may seem pedantic or focused on issues that don't matter for most folks...I can tell any reader, having served for many years in the Army and having saluted the flag on its raising and lowering every day and having provided details for executing the honors- including rendering honors for deceased Soldiers- this is not a small issue. If you have presided over the rendering of honors for Soldiers who have died in service of our Nation and you have a different opinion, maybe I would be interested in your thoughts. Otherwise, just render the courtesies and honors attendant to the flag and all it represents).
So apparently it's the actual UN flags that are privately owned and supplied to the town whenever needed, and not the actual flagpole.
And apparently the reason the Select Board is timid about messing with the UN Flag flying all by itself is because of the 1973 Town Meeting warrant article that barely passed.
Imagine if the 13th was fully enforced....or the 1st or 2nd or even section 1...just imagine.
Let's elect a president who actually Does protect and defend the Constitution.
Africans fought wars to enslave other Africans in order to sell to the Europeans the defeated. Not what we were told as kids.
--Dr. Henry Louis Gates
Interesting Squeaky. And much overlooked.
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