Large crowd was orderly and respectful
If Hampshire College is trying to forget what our flag looks like, well over 500+ folks from all walks of life showed up Sunday at their front gate to remind them. Let's hope that even institutes of higher education can benefit by a teachable moment (or in this case a teachable hour).
Video taken 12:30 PM
The crowd started gathering before noon for the 1:00 PM rally
Video taken 1:50 PM
B2 briefly put a flag back up on Hampshire College main flagpole
Only their main flag in campus center was banned
Hampshire College Police Department and Alumni Relations flags still fly
Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno
Northwestern District Attorney Dave Sullivan
VFW Post 754 main sponsor of the demonstration getting ready at 11:30 AM
I would have been there but I didn't want to be mislabeled as a Trump supporter.
ReplyDeleteI would have been there but I feared violence from the alt-left. Was relieved to hear it was non-violent and for the most part Veterans and my fellow righties.
ReplyDeleteLarry, say what you will, but the protest was most definitely not non-violent. Someone in the crowd threw a rock at a car driven by a friend of mine. This is just one report from one person, but it is from a very trustworthy person, and I suspect it soon will be corroborated by others.
ReplyDeleteIf a thrown rock was all, I'll take it. I was expecting worse. Do you know who threw it? Flag lover or flag hater?
DeleteDid all those hundreds of illegally parked vehicles get ticketed? Your dash cam reveals their license plates, so it should be easy to send those tickets to their owners.
ReplyDelete- Massachusetts State Police
Yes, let's really get back at at these scofflaws! That'll show 'em. my guess is that all of these people would happily pay whatever petty fine there might be. But speaking of petty… Well enough about you.
DeletePayback time!
ReplyDeleteLarry, did you have permission to land b-2 on top of their flagpole? If not, you were trespassing.
ReplyDeleteO fer chrissake.
DeleteMore pettiness.
DeleteAnd just think of the violence inflicted on the defenseless America-hating undergraduates, who had to glimpse the horrifying stars and stripes. Have you no heart?
ReplyDeleteLol. TV news showed one lonely flag in a window. Whichever student or staff member put it there has guts. Thank you whomever you are.
DeleteI hope CNN will broadcast some of this in addition to their original reporting.
ReplyDeleteWhere were the tear gas-water canons-paddy wagons-an illegal alt-right riot !!!?$&@
ReplyDeleteIn the realm of collecting easy political points, this was low-hanging fruit for Dom Sarno.
ReplyDeleteRich Morse
Maybe but DA Dave Sullivan seldom looks for low hanging fruit.
ReplyDeleteAnd it's never a good idea to piss off the Irish and Italians at the same time.
Yes- it demonstrates a Catholic tendency toward " Sacred" relics-the flag-Madonna-whatever-but also demonstrates a bankrupt intellect about democratic philosophy and principals- just Say'n. !!!!?????
DeleteYou offend pacifist- for no rhyme or reason- that's anti-social -Hello ???
DeleteWhere was the scumbag who ordered the take down of the flag?
ReplyDeleteHiding under his usual rock.
ReplyDeleteYou know society is inside out when political leaders, you know the ones with real power, attend and pump up protests.
ReplyDeleteI remember the first time I was attracted to this blog. I was searching for news on a wacked issue, protests asking for more government price fixing of labor aka the min wage protests going for $15 an hour and Amherst putting this up for a decision (to people aside form the parties in the transaction). There were loser politically elected power folks there too. I found that very inspiring!
The end result of that blog post and the actions of those described was:
1. I now read this blog, as it is just full of hypocrisy and that is just fascinating for some reason.
2. Within 3 months, we moved our manufacturing out of Mass, along with the jobs, to Maine. It took 2 years to move our retail out of state, but we still did it. Our customers, in Mass or otherwise, would not have paid the increases it would have taken to have $15 wages and we ran for the sake of our business and the jobs we do make. We have grown now nationwide and have hired many more, but unfortunately, not in Mass.
So the real question, so we know who won this conflict.
Is the flag up today on that pole?
That college is known to be a joke, and well known. The protest is much more of a joke, and very few care. One flag on one campus, surely we have larger issues we could have put that many people at. Imagine if all those people dressed in flag outfits and helped the most desperate of society? 2 hours x 500 people = 1/2 year of labor wasted.
And the final question, so that we know who profited.
Did readership and ad revenue increase on the blog?
It would be cool if they flew the flag, but it would only be appropriate if they wanted to.
There really isn't a much larger issue. Love the country the flag stands for or hate it. There os no in-between.
DeleteHa Ha, Hampshire College the textbook safety school, AKA 13th grade, a laughing stock of a college that no one takes serious. The diploma mill of Massachusetts. As one person once said "You know how you get accepted into Hampshire College"? You just show up. This publicity will not help with their ongoing financial issues they have had the past 15 years. This call the college Bankrupt U.
ReplyDeleteWhere was Jim McGovern?
ReplyDeleteWhile I would like to see the flag flown with pride and be even more proud of what it represents as we try to bring back the freedoms we have given up for entitlements....I cannot help but compare this to the waste of grant writing....so many people putting so much effort forth could have been directed at a true community need where neighbors are actually suffering vs. being offended by private actions. This is an enormous reallocation of labor and there is little work product to show for it in a community with great needs. Cool protest, just seems like we have priority issues. I hope those that organized and promoted this realize their power and I hope to see these same folks in coming weeks with more collective action and protests to make a difference on more substantive issues and actual community needs.
ReplyDeleteIt was organized by the local VFW
Delete" Ha Ha, Hampshire College the textbook safety school, AKA 13th grade, a laughing stock of a college that no one takes serious. The diploma mill of Massachusetts. As one person once said "You know how you get accepted into Hampshire College"? You just show up. This publicity will not help with their ongoing financial issues they have had the past 15 years."
ReplyDeleteTry 23 years -- I have it on good authority that they almost went bankrupt in 1994.
And what this protest did was make it more expensive for a "no trouble on my watch" administrator to appease the leftists. Don't think that Whitmore wasn't watching.
Anon 9:57AM soooooooo, glad you left MA.
ReplyDeleteSo who's freaking out. It was a simple demonstration.
ReplyDelete"See that flag, Mr. Reid? That's the flag of the United States of America. That Flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag still stands for freedom. You know it always will..."
ReplyDeleteU. S. District Judge Young on sentencing Richard Reid, a/k/a "The Shoe Bomber"
Hear! Hear!
DeleteIf you try harder you can use up more comment space with more than 8 o's in "so."
ReplyDeleteThere was a protest to over removing the flag of a country that allows for freedom of speech and freedom of decision of whether to fly the flag or not. In other words, some people protested that fact that other Americans are exercising their rights as American citizens. In other words, some people are protesting because others are testing the foundation of our country, i.e. , testing whether or not we actually do have those freedoms.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me the ones protesting against people protesting the flag are missing the point of one of America's founding principles. To say that it is un-American to remove the flag misses the point entirely. What could be more American than exercising one of those rights that very few countries have, that we Americans brag about as truly American. This is what always puzzles me about the America love it or leave it crowd. If it weren't for the incredible foundations of our country articulating all of these wonderful freedoms, then the USA would be just another run of the mill country. Yet when people exercise these freedoms to disagree with the country, then the alt right gets their panties in an uproar. Hey alt right, it's America, love it or leave it. (tee hee)
And who cares about the mayor of Springfield? Why hold him up as a model citizen? What has he done that merits time at a microphone? Same goes for the d.a. Who cares what he thinks? If someone was breaking the law, then he might have some relevance. Other than that, he's just another overweight white guy. Who cares?
Where are the CAN accusations to the guy that was glad jobs left the state?
ReplyDeleteSurely that is worse than most stuff said here by those that do not ID themselves.
Perhaps there should be two words for freedom.
ReplyDeleteOne that is the freedom you have like the stuff the law says you can do. Perhaps we should just call this one "legal" and I think this is the one that folks claim the flag represents.
Another for the freedoms you don't have, like planting a shoe bomb or generally making a decision that has not be preapproved or ordained by a government official.
I think the real "freedom" is not compatible with our new society because this would be all about liberty, a literal bad word these days. Liberty is a right that has little or no effect on others. Like if you could use a stainless steel kitchen bowl as a sink basin in your new bath. This is illegal, but it would work and have no effect on others. This liberty has been taken away. Just a basic example. All other rights are entitlements, like when you send your kid to school as a right, but your neighbor has to partially finance this. It has a significant and negative effect on others that they cannot choose to avoid.
Having one word that means it is up to you when that is only true if someone else approves is confusing and can lead to conflict. Most people believe in the government approved freedom and not freedom of choice by the individual.
This is interesting given how many words we have that actually mean the same thing.
Because while that Judge Young quote sounds ok, it also sounds like a contradiction if you respect the meaning of words and don't just assume everyone will work it out even though the words mean something opposite of what you intend them to say.
The word bubble also has this issue. In terms of physical bubbles, we are familiar with two that are very different. There are bubbles from a wand or on top of soap or beer - a thin film of liquid, thinner than hair, stretched around a cavity of gas. Then there are other type, like if you have too much beans and then take a bath. These are bubbles that are cavities of air but them are suspended in a body of fluid, not just a thin film. These bubbles have very different properties and if you are in industry vs. playing with your kids, they have very different properties and applications....just like your two kinds of freedoms....neither of which mean you get to decide on your own because on is approved and the other is....well....not.
Bubbles? You're talking about bubbles ans wands and basins? Smoke a little more dope.
ReplyDeletedont any of these people have jobs to go to? I bet a bunch of them work state jobs too funded by my taxpayer money and they took off work so I have to pay for this crap
ReplyDeleteYou pay for a lot less crap than this. Like The Vagina Monologues.
DeleteIncidentally a lot of people have Sunday off. Whatsamatta? Don't You work on a Monday?
Hostile turn
ReplyDeleteToward the end of the rally, a speaker tried to move the crowd from in front of the Hampshire College sign so that it could be visible in a picture.
At that point, witnesses said, a student sat in front of the sign.
From then on, things became heated. The counterprotester sat silently but was taunted by the crowd. Police formed a human shield around him.
“Buy him a train ticket out of the country,” said Ryan Howe, a 24-year-old Army veteran from Ludlow.
Others said the man was a “snowflake.”
“You know some day you’re gonna grow up,” one woman said to the counterprotester. “You’re gonna be so ashamed of yourself.”
As the crowd became more impatient, some protesters draped their flags in front of cameras, hoping to prevent people from documenting the episode and giving the counterprotester attention.
“F--- his press!” one man shouted. “He’s a f---ing liberal piece of s---!”
A Gazette photographer reported that someone shouted at her, “Grab her by the pussy!” in an apparent reference to Donald Trump’s 2005 remarks in a video that was leaked during the campaign.
O the sheer violence! Words can never harm me.
DeleteAnd 4:50, I will assume you support the right of people to shout awful things, yes?
DeleteWHAT ABOUT MY FREEDOM TO DISAGREE ???!$&@
ReplyDelete"A Gazette photographer reported that someone shouted at her, “Grab her by the pussy!”"
ReplyDeleteAnd then what happened?
I kinda think that is relevant...
My guess is that there were a lot of older folks present who wouldn't approve of that being said to a woman, even if they might say it about one.
Please name the student who gave the bird to everyone, and sat in front of the sign,with police as his protectors. Please, someone list his name, a know a couple of guys who want to give him something:)
ReplyDeleteMy name is Alice Coty-Brookes..I will not be anonymous as others have been. I was raised in Amherst and am well aware of how one should be "politically correct " if you want to be accepted in the mainstream. My father Jack Coty who most older residents would know, was in the Navy during WWll. His brother was in the Marines during the war and saw the flag raised on Iwo Jima. They disagreed on the right of citizens to burn the flag. Dad said he fought for the right for people to have free speech even if he did not agree. My Uncle Eugene said he fought for the flag and it should always be respected. They agreed to disagree, and still respected each other's opinion.
ReplyDeleteWe are in a different time yet passions are strong. I ask for mutual respect on both sides but that those who have not served or sacrificed for their country please show the respect to those who have made the decision to fight for your rights to do so. That flag gives you the right to speak your mind and many lost their life fighting for that.
Without those people who are Veterans, our right to complain about them wouldn't exist. Bless'em all.
DeleteWords words words
ReplyDeleteOh but we loove Bill Clinton! He was in the Oval Office with a cigar and a young intern. And then he wagged his finger at us while lying right to our faces. An impeached perjuring rapist. That's My President!
ReplyDelete"Oh but we loove Bill Clinton! He was in the Oval Office with a cigar and a young intern"
ReplyDeletecorrection
Oh but we love Bill Clinton! He was in the Oval Office with a cigar IN a young intern
Thank you. Suffering from Irritable Vowel Syndrome.
DeleteAgain: Hear! Hear!
ReplyDeleteI have three words for spineless weasel President Jonathan Lash:
ReplyDelete"God Bless America"
Nice to see Tucker Carlson pick up this story and 22-WWLP footage last night for national coverage. Should really raise the stock price of ol' Amherst.
ReplyDeleteWould love to see some of these protestors get their pants in a twist for something that would actually make a difference. Like homelessness or hunger or perhaps use all this energy to do something in service to the community.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they are all veterans.
DeleteYeah, like being an Internet troll.
ReplyDeleteAre you supporters of the veterans the same people who spit on veterans when they returned from the Vietnam War?
ReplyDeleteAre you the same supporters who didn't help those veterans when they tried to find work, when they needed Congress to understand that they had been poisoned by their own country with Agent Orange?
Are you the same people who didn't help those vets when they literally had to purchase the property on the Mall in D.C. and then raise funds to pay for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to be built?
Are you the same supporters who want to make war at the drop of a hat as long as it is someone else's kid who is serving?
From thje smell of this, I would say that, yes, you are these same "supporters."