Barren flagpole at Hampshire College this Sunday morning
Hampshire College has symbolically seceded from The Union, although I'm sure the Governor or President will not bother sending in troops to bring them back into the fold. No great loss.
Last week Hampshire College acquiesced in the best Neville Chamberlain fashion to the vocal minority and lowered the flag to half staff as a sign of mourning over the surprising election of a Presidential candidate not of their choosing.
Since our flag is only lowered to honor and remember the dead, doing so for petty reasons only demeans the sacred act itself. A better choice would be to fly the flag upside down as a symbol of distress.
Then after miscreant students burned the flag they put up a new one in time for Veteran Day, but still at half staff.
But now they have sunk even lower by removing the American flag entirely. Although the brave bureaucrats chose the perfect time as area colleges and UMass take a Thanksgiving break and then we're on a fast track to Christmas, err, the "Holiday Season," and the end of the semester.
Although as of Monday morning a flag is still flying at Hampshire College PD
It would be one thing if Hampshire College were an upstanding good citizen of Amherst but they are the only tax exempt institute of higher education who pays nothing for our vital ambulance and fire department protection and yet continually tie up AFD with "cooking smoke" false alarms.
And they loved getting all the free press from the left leaning bricks and mortar media for their scholarship program for undocumented students who do not have official citizenship.
So yeah Hampshire College, by all means, lets welcome those who come to this great country to make a better life for themselves through education but at the same time show disrespect for the ultimate symbol of who and what we are: the American flag.
Amherst College flag atop Johnson Chapel. That's the way I always heard it should be
66 comments:
Maybe they will fly a pair of bloomers from a panty raid-OOPS- that's sexual crime now !!!
Seceded, I think you mean.
Yeah, that.
Who took it down -- the admin or the students?
Admin.
You can't lose what you never had.
Who cares, really?
Losers!!!!
morons at HC. Feel free to keep burning stuff. It's free speech.
Larry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKOb-kmOgpI
Bubble College...
Amherst College has a flag on top of a chapel? I've never seen a church with an American Flag on it before. Unsettling. But whatever floats your boat.
You're unsettled pretty easily.
Hampshire College will see federal funding disappear going forward.This will be a good thing for everyone else, but them. I would describe that college as a cess pool.
If people are billed for being recused, why can't AFD bill them for fire coverage?
This is small beer. Let's focus on the big stuff--the rise of white nationalism, possible repeal of healthcare coverage (medicaid, medicare, affordable care act), climate change, deregulation of wall street, ending the right of women to control their bodies and choose an abortion, possible registration of Muslims--shall I go on?
Sorry, but the guy who supports a socialist rental bylaw is the petty one for making such comments. You could not fly the flag for decades...it would not be as bad as supporting such a law, which absolutely disgraces the flag more than burning it.
Fail.
It would nice to see actual fact finding before jumping to conclusions. Did you speak to Hampshire about why the flag is missing?
10:20: -- It's national news.
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2016/11/21/hampshire-college-decides-not-fly-any-flags
It's only just begun.
And be damned he who cries, hold enough.
huh?
You'd prefer a lyin' skunk who let four Americans die then lied to their families about the reason they died? You'd prefer to let babies be killed? You like to pay more and more for your Obamacare rather than see it replaced with something better? You prefer diversity and multiculturalism to ability and talent? Shall I go on?
Hampshire College as a nonprofit corporation is a legal person. Every person still has the right to free speech in burning the flag, and the right to remain silent by not flying one.
Those concepts seem outdated. Instead, we should have special policemen wear a U.S. flag armband. Their job would be to enforce patriotism. If you refuse to display the flag, you can choose to wear a pin on your chest instead.
Seems like plenty of people on this blog would love to wear those armbands.
"Hampshire College as a nonprofit corporation is a legal person. Every person still has the right to free speech in burning the flag, and the right to remain silent by not flying one."
Well, not really. The ATF has made it very clear that Corporations do not possess 2nd Amendment rights, only Natural Persons do, and the 3rd Amendment was totally ignored during WW-II (and I believe WW-I).
And as to free speech rights of corporations, that's what the _Citizens United_ case was all about -- a SCOTUS decision that a lot of you would like to see reversed.
But notwithstanding that, answer this: Do I not have a right of free speech too?!?
I have the right to condemn Hampster for it's speech -- my right to exercise my right as a citizen is quite different from the state compelling speech at gunpoint.
One other thing: Hampshire College is an agent of the state. When the Federal Govt is paying over half the costs of 91% of its students, it really isn't a private entity anymore.
The people paying the bill have a right to a say in how their money is spent. That's what Title IX was supposed to be about -- if you take Federalmoney, you gotta have athletic facilities & teams for the girls, too.
Well, CAN1:38, I'm thinking a similar rule requiring recipients to properly display and teach respect for the US flag. Remember, Hampshire doesn't have to observe Title IX if they don't want to...
Hampshire College is a private organization, and they are not required to fly the flag, just as you and I are not required to fly it at our own homes. And given that a few (possibly mis-guided) students keep burning the flag, maybe the administration is being wise by avoiding unnecessary confrontation/disrespect. Whose interests would be served by a big fight about it right now?
"requiring recipients to properly display and teach respect for the US flag"
And there it is. Ed is the recipient of the first armband.
If you do not love America no one can force you to do so. I would, and gladly do disply the American flag. My question is this: why don't you just shove off if it bothers you so much? Do you have some need to stick around and bitch?
Ed, get off your high horse. It's students that are eligible for Federal aid not the schools. Quit being such a blowhard.
You cannot legislate support for YOUR or YSA policies- that would be a dictatorship fascism-like the Third Reich - people CAN and must be able to dissent-would YOU want to be forced to concur with-say- the policies of the school nuts at Amherst Regional - for example-think about it-chill-dudester !!!!
Freedom is great. To display the flag. To burn the flag. Do what thou wilt be the whole of the law.
Ed, get off your high horse. It's students that are eligible for Federal aid not the schools,
Sorry, the US Supreme Court disagrees on this.....
So pull the state funding and shut it down.
America allows this same misfits to choose to become a man,if they are a woman, or a woman if they are a man. This is a rampant occurrence at this school. I say send the Syrian refugees to assimilate with Hampshire students, put them in the dorms. They will help these cretans understand what happens when freedom is taken for granted. Hampshire College is a cess pool.
I see this story differently, they took the flag down to protect from vandalism.
Weak heroin made them cranky,
is all.
-Squeaky Squeaks
p.s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmGlISA9Cz4
Nuh -------> ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ <------- night!
_Grove City College v. Bell_ -- Govt authority over private school.
And yes,I'd like to see Hampshire shut down.
Disgraceful.
Maybe send the President Elect in there to grab them by the p****. That will show them, believe me.
It was we at the Phys. Plant of HC who put the flag up to full staff on our flag pole off of Bay Rd.
"It was we at the Phys. Plant of HC who put the flag up to full staff"
Sorry, but that won't help. The almighty Ed, wants you shut down. Because nothing is too trivial for him to demand extreme punishment.
So 90% of students get over 1/2 their private education paid for by other citizens (that is a public school)....
and over 90% of Amherst public school students get 95% of their education paid for by other citizens (that is welfare for those not in need).....
the town is asking for 100's of millions of dollars to upgrade departments that are already apparently doing a good job (that is wealth redistribution to those that are already the most secure)....
The town if full of people that lost the election and feel that further action should be taken to mitigate the election (elections are simply methods to mitigate rioting and violence after a shift in power, not a method to choose).....
and full of folks that had no issues with letting the prosperity of most people evaporate so we can have more rules and fund more government programs (really folks WTF).....
what exactly does that flag represent to people? (Seems like it represents oppression based on perpetuating the above, aka the controlling left).
You know how to spot the socialist?
They get very worked up when the progress of propganda is threatened, even just a tiny bit like this, but do very little when actual liberty is trampled.
Larry's reaction to this reminds me of the reaction of a comrade engineer to someone who did not describe their hard work positively with a smile in a recent documentary about N Korea. I remember a 10 year old girl being asked to say something positive, all she could do was sing about her respected generalismo.
Ahhh, the flag.
What exactly does it represent in Amherst?
The great thing about the USA is that a citizen does not have to respect the flag. A citizen in a free country has the freedom to express his views. When we outlaw that, we are no longer a free country. And maybe that is what a lot of the right wing actually wants. They don't really appear to care about freedom that they brag so much about. They want selective freedom, which isn't really freedom at all. America, when it is great, is free and people have the freedom to even burn the flag, whether anyone else likes it or not. Just as Nazi sympathizers have the right to express their views of hate against so many others. That is the essence of freedom, in the USA or anywhere else.
Be careful and be aware, right wingers and rednecks: there are plenty of people in the USA with wealth and power who want to take your freedoms away. The left wing already knows this.
Personally, I don't burn the flag because I want to wave it high as I stand with those who have the right to burn the flag. Yes, our country is full of such contradictions. We can't say we love the freedom and then deny the freedom. I want everyone to see me waving that flag as I stand and speak my free mind for or against my government. That is freedom, and if you don't like it, maybe you should try another country.
Send Bill Clinton to show them how not to just talk about grabbing p*ssy, but to actually Do it in the Oval Office. Hypocrite alert.
Free to burn anything you like. The US flag. Theexican flag. The rainbow flag. The HC Library. After all, that's where a lot of bad ideas reside. History we disagree with, etc.
Larry, Excellent Post! I only learned about HC's decision to completely cave in this morning and just could not let this stand w/o saying anything. My reasons are too numerous and personal. But let's say that even though I didn't go in, I'm extremely proud to have come from a solid military family, with my father, two brothers, nephew, all serving in the Army at one time, though my dad retired from the Air Force which he joined just before teaching AFROTC at UMass during the program's infancy in the early Fifties. My future son in law's younger brother is in the Army now. The reply I posted in Accuracy in Media's open forum page is giving your blog a good national plug. You deserve it. Hell, you jumped on the issue and rightly dumped on the place faster than I did. Great on you! I've changed over the years, not so full of the piss n' vinegar I had while writing for the Sentinel and on occasion for The Bulletin decades ago. But why the hell do the same kinds of stupid issues have to keep popping up over and over? To paraphrase that beautiful quoting of Aristophanes by actor Kevin Kline in The Emperor's Club, "Student immaturity can be overcome, tenured teachers can be curtailed by growing number of empty desks and colleges can demonstrate more creativity in raising funds than to dig their hands into the wallets of the parents who send their kiddos to places like Hampshire. But stupidity in Academia leaves its mark ... Forever."
They don't learn, do they? Too emotional to continue. This is the worst and lowest display of cowardice I've witnessed. Damn 'em.
Very Courageously written, Mr. Steven P. Barrett. So, just to be clear, many of your family served but you went to college and ditched the Vietnam War because ...?
Yep, that's what I thought, like so many of others who stayed in college rather than risk getting drafted but now are as hawkish as anyone. You are the picture of a Chicken Hawk, sir. Were you too scared to serve or, like Dick Cheney said, you were simply too busy doing other things?
That's ok, Mr. Steven P. Barrett, don't worry about actually having the courage to go overseas and fight our latest enemy. We can all imagine how buffed up you would look in that nice Marine uniform. I can see it in my mind's eye now.
Yea, you'd make a really good fake soldier. Don't worry, the fake uniform you'll imagine yourself wearing comes with a few days supply of fake courage, just enough for you to figure out how not to be the one standing in real defense of your country.
Oh say can you see?
And you are?
This is the exact converse of the 1960's, Hampshire College is the new Dow Chemical.
This is a populist uprising just like in the late 1960's, except the opposite inside & outside, the people holding the "pitchforks & torches" now are the ones being confronted with them.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out -- Amherst is like Bangor, ME was in 1966 when Dow AFB was a major SAC base, and the city a major rail hub/junction with two railyards. Dow closed in 1968 and the railroads collapsed (nationally) a few years later. Only now is the city economically back to where it was 50 years ago.
When, not if, the Higher Education Industry collapses, Amherst is going to be as devastated as Bangor was in the early 1980's. Hampshire's going to go first, like Bangor's BOMART missile site, but the other four colleges will not continue to spend like drunken sailors.
"So, just to be clear, many of your family served but you went to college and ditched the Vietnam War because ...?"
And I ask a different question: Why do you not condemn the colleges for getting the student deferment into the draft laws?
I just wish that I could take every kid at Hampshire and drop him/her at Omaha Beach, required to read all of the interpretive signage there and at the Normandy cemeteries.
I think a trip back in time and a seat on one of the Allied landing craft on June 6 would be helpful, perhaps for as little as 20 minutes on the water, peering at the beach. They'd just look around them at the men riding with them, and the expressions on their faces. No exit into the water required.
Then I'd ask whether they want to go back onto their 21st century campus and diss/burn/refuse to fly the flag.
And, as you know, Larry, I am one of those liberal guys who acknowledges when America gets it wrong, which has happened quite a few times over our history.
My sense is that this is a pack mentality, which kids are susceptible to, and raw ignorance. And we'd be better off not taking the bait. Which I just did.
Rich Morse
And you sir or madam have served your nation in what way?
The HC student who appeared with Tucker Carlson said he was grateful that his parents could afford to send him there even though their money was made on the backs of slaves. The "grateful" ingrate's proud folks must have some really old money stashed away. But the kid allows it to be spent on him anyway. Ah the liberal hypocrisy presents itself so clearly.
Anonymous, you might as well be writing to the man on the moon if you think you're going to successfully embarrass me or "call me out" for some lack of courage. If using the nomme de guerre "anonymous" is your idea of demonstrating courage when calling somebody else to task for not having shown it ... hell almost a half century ago ... well, I'll let the readers decide what they think of your points. I stand by my opinions on this matter and my past record.
It's actually a crime to disrespectfully burn our flag, although rately prosecuted.
Just like a precious snowflake to demand "more beer"... no matter how much they are given, it's never enough.
Sorry bud, but flag-burning is not "free speech", it's actually a crime (though rately prosecuted).
Because successive generations, raised on Howard Zinn's revisionist history book, just can't let go of the idea that "real socialism has never been tried." And the aging hippies and radicals of the "sixties generation", their teachers, have been waiting for the day when this generation of useful idiots comes of age.
So let's start an online petition demanding that Daniel Vogul's parents give their house and yard back to the Native Americans!
How true Ann, how sadly true. But the biggest outrage was committed by the college's brass which behaved in such a way that that would've left Neville Chamberlain red faced. All they had to do was keep putting up new replacement flags till the kiddos got the message, esp. after they sent the bills home to ma n' pa. And had I been in charge of billing the parents, believe me, they would've been paying the top price for the most expensive flags on the market. Eventually they get the message. And if they didn't pay, hell, that'd be grounds for tossing 'em out the door and putting a judgment on their record to follow them till they pay it off. Money, if not higher principles usually has the most powerful effects on their "reasoning powers." Nothing higher than mere crass lucre.
One can only imagine what a full-fledged outcry, you-name-it kind of protest, sit in, educate-in, navel-gazing-in would ensue if somebody torched the UN flag on the Amherst Common. In addition to the "ins" mentioned above, there'd be some local versions of the Trey Gowdy hearings on Hillary Clinton and Benghazi, the Watergate hearings, just picture in your mind some political street theater that graced Washington's halls and your TV screen and that should give you a hint of what would happen. Only the huffin' n' puffin' would be a lot louder. The older some of their prof buddies get, the more wheezing that's bound to come for noises from at least their north portal.
Take away the 20 million in grants etc. And old glory will reappear. The most disturbing aspect is their believe their actually teaching the students something.
Very well stated, Steven P. Barrett. I take it all back. After several hours of navel gazing, I have seen the light. You, sir, are the picture of patriotism. As soon as Black Friday starts, I'll be in line to get my American flag. You'll know me because I'll be at the huge demonstration at the gates of the mighty Hampshire College on Sunday. I'll be the guy waving the flag. Kelley will be the other guy there, playing with his toy.
I just love it when people call her old glory. Shivers running up my spine.
Trolls require their own special font.
Lol. That comes next. Stay tuned.
A true America hater.
Ann it's not a crime to burn the American flag. You are protected under the first amendment when you burn the flag.
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