Today's Gazette hyping a Town Meeting advisory warrant article from 8th-graders
So here's yet another good reason to do away with antiquated Amherst Town Meeting as a legislative body overseeing our $75+ million college town: time wasting advisory articles.
According to today's Gazette Amherst Regional Middle school students will collect the (only) ten signatures required to get their rename Columbus Day article on the warrant.
Geeze, maybe Amherst College students will file one calling for the renaming of our town, and by extension Amherst College.
Or maybe ten rowdy UMass kids will file one suggesting we officially recognize the "Blarney Blowout."
Two of the most egregious public relations nightmares that made us the laughing stock of the nation were hatched by 17-year-old high school students: the cancelling of 'West Side Story' and then 5 years later being the only high school in the nation to perform the R rated 'Vagina Monologues'.
Sometimes -- like the medieval Children's Crusade -- it's best not to let the kiddies lead.
Why should we have a holiday honoring Columbus? Name one reason.
ReplyDeleteBecause his coming here opened the floodgates for human progress. Did the "indiginous people" invent anything which advanced humankind? A cure for anything? Communication systems?
DeleteWhy have a holiday honoring "Indians?"
DeleteBecause a lot of politicians have last names "that end with a vowel", anon 6:47....
ReplyDeleteLet's change it to Calvin Terrell day!!!!! Yeah, he's a warrior and perfect candidate for the town of misfits.
ReplyDeleteWhy do they have to strip Columbus of his day? Can you not have an IP Day on another day?
DeleteChristopher Columbus discovered America, dicknose. That's why.
ReplyDeleteThis PC bullshit is killing us. 8th graders are running the system? Where are the adults?
DeleteLarry, would you honestly have expected any of this back in the 1970's?
ReplyDeleteEven in Amherst, would you have expected any of this???
Columbus and his voyages are symbols of expedition and discovery, conquest, the European diaspora, and the spread of western civilization. Columbus Day is a celebration of western arrival. Furthermore, in many Italian-American neighborhoods in the USA, (eg the North End in Boston who have one of the country's largest celebrations), the day is a celebration of Italian culture, and their migration to the USA, similar to St. Patrick's Day.
ReplyDeleteThis is almost as good as Leverett, mind you same kind of people leading, Teewaddle Hill Road, once part of the famous mail stagecoach route-the Lancaster Post Road-From Lancater Ma, to Sundeland Ma, a road which carried the first settler. A women fresh from New York City ran unopposed for the historical commission, she won, then asked kids about re-naming roads in Leverett. Teewaddle Hill Road had been named for the "Tees" and "Waddles" of oak planks cut for the railroad when it was introduced in 1800s, yet this New Yorker brags on the town literature that she, with the grade school kids, had the road renamed "TEAwaddle-the "Tea" because she said kids felt that drunks ambling toward the inn were berated by their wives and only allowed to be "tea totalers". Wow-what gentrification/ quaintification-the renaming measure passed, I protested that this new name had no accurate historical bearing, all to no avail.The episode was published in the Gazette,though !
ReplyDeleteThanks for pontificating, Ed. This is a discussion about Amherst. Children that live in Amherst voiced their opinions. You don't live in Amherst. Your opinion is not the topic.
ReplyDeleteChildren in Amherst regurgitated the left wing agenda they had been fed.
DeleteWho gives a crap as long as we still get a 3 day weekend.
ReplyDeleteI will live in Amherst until I am given back that which was taken from me.
ReplyDeleteNotwithstanding that, I asked someone who lived in Amherst IN THE 1970'S if HE (NOTE PRONOUN) would have ever expected this foolishness.
Anon Schmuck 8:01 makes Donald Trump look sane...
You mean President Trump.
DeleteNothing was taken from you Ed. Move along.
ReplyDeletePeople! Cranky enough? It's great that kids are looking to the political process to right what they see as a wrong. And Larry enough with the banging on Town Meeting. Next you will blame Town Meeting for your parking tickets. If you don't like Town Meeting, step down as a member! I will gladly listen to what our 7th and 8th graders have to say.
ReplyDeleteKids. Right. What is the wrong they think they are righting? Kids.
Delete9:57 is why I WON'T go away....
ReplyDeleteAmherst Delenda Est!
"Who gives a crap as long as we still get a 3 day weekend."
ReplyDeleteActually, they should give up this day off. And they should give up any Italian invention if they have such a problem with Italian discovery:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Italian_inventions
There really should be a renaming commission to examine all names in 'Amherst'. Here is a couple to start with:
ReplyDeleteColumbia Lane
Amherst
Arrowhead Lane
Shays street
The democrat party is the party of lynchings, kkk, dred scott, slavery. Why don't the 7th graders vote to abolish it and thereby right those wrongs?
DeleteYou won't go away because you are nuts.
ReplyDeleteLiars
ReplyDeletedeceivers
hypocrites.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y1jdsopdpE
They'll do ~ANYTHING~
and use ~ANYONE~
for power.
Even children,
for $$$!
-Squeaky Squeaks
p.s. The very definition of ~wickedness~, in my book.
I can't wait until Trump ushers these mentally ill libs out the door. November can't come soon enough.
DeleteWhat's wrong with Shay, now?
ReplyDeleteScrolling, Scrolling, and keep Scrolling?
ReplyDeleteNope, Ed is still here.
I'm losing faith in this idea...
That's Larry for you. Kids make a decision like this and all of a sudden Amherst is the next Khmer Rouge.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you could use some retraining, comrad.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you could use some spelling lessons. Comrade.
ReplyDeleteAmong other things (none of them overly important).
ReplyDeleteWe're basing what we do on the votes of 8th graders? Ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteMost things in this town seem like they are decided by 3rd graders.
ReplyDeleteWhy are we not celebrating this as progress? At this pace, in only 183 more years, Amherst may just have some adults.
Just let them know that they get Columbus Day off, not Indigenous People's day. Viola, it's called Columbus Day again. Then the brainwashing will be washed away as they get back to what is really important for kids, playing.
Go ahead and have an ip day. Just pick another day.
DeleteWhy do those few children get to express their thoughts and not the rest???
ReplyDeleteAnon 2:51
ReplyDeleteSounds like you could use a comma, comrade.
Trump is just punking the right wingers. Just do a little research on his past. He's buddies with the Clintons.
ReplyDeleteWow! A new revelation! We had no idea! And his denouncing of GWBush is like catnip to the Dems too. Ensuring a historic landslide for him.
DeleteVOTE CRUZ!
ReplyDeleteI like Cruz too. Funny how the libs are the party of old, white candidates, and very little has been made by the MSM of the fact that the R's have two hispanics and a black guy in the running. Republicans are more diverse. But the left doesn't celebrate diversity when it doesn't fit their narrative.
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt Cruz would make the trains run on time. FWIW I'd rather wait a few extra minutes for that train, than have jackbooted stormtroopers in my bedroom.
ReplyDeleteJackbooted stormtroopers. Wow. Not necessary. Guy wants to uphold the Constitution and that 's what the lefties call him. When given the choice between a communist and a communist you'll vote for the commie every time.
DeleteWhere's the "None of the above" choice when you need it?
ReplyDeleteThe perfect is the enemy of the good. I like and have liked several of these candidates. You're too picky!
ReplyDeleteI love tha Trump scares libs. Hey, incidentally, great dog imitation Hillary. (No jokes please.)
ReplyDeleteAnd your evidence of this is...?
ReplyDeleteMaize (corn) was "invented" (as in selectively bred) here, as were potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and many other food crops which have spread around the world. Mayan astronomy and medicine was as advanced as anywhere else at its time. And if you've ever enjoyed maple syrup, or paddling a canoe or… (as someone pointed out) democratically organize a vast nation - as the Iroquois did - seek no further!
ReplyDeleteAnd these were exported to the world by whom?
ReplyDeleteFor those of you who appear to of not read the article witch looks like the majority haven't read it again. Many of you are quick to judge. If you atchually know what Columbus did to the Native Americans Along with other groups of people you would be horrified. Now as for the age does it really matter. One of the students is my little sister and I assure you that just because you maybe older it doesn't say much. The way most are commenting is far more immature then the 8th graders.
ReplyDelete