Festive Family Fourth of July

South Amherst Town Common.  South Congregational Church (top left)

The historic South Amherst Common comes alive the morning of July 4th, as it has done for over 100 years, with the sights and sounds of a Children's Parade.  

Happy kids, with their awesome steeds all dressed up in red white and blue taking a few laps around the bucolic common.

Rockwell would be ever so proud. 

Speaking Well of the Dead

A July 4 Parade for kids, DPW, Police, Fire, Military, farmers and families.  God bless America

So I have to admit being somewhat bemused by today's enshrining editorial simultaneously published in the venerable Daily Hampshire Gazette and Amherst Bulletin lamenting the loss of the Amherst July 4th Parade next month after a march of ten consecutive years.

This from newspapers who only four years ago told the private July 4th Parade Committee to go find another holiday while simultaneously supporting the town of Amherst nationalizing the Parade in direct violation of a 9-0 Supreme Court First Amendment ruling.

Thank God for the ACLU.  Because when the mainstream media drops the ball, who else are you going to call?

Kevin Joy always made sure the July 4th Parade ran on time

A hot July 4th Parade in Amherst

The Parade started exactly at 3:00 PM

The biggest crowd in our nine-year history disproved P.T. Barnum's theory that all publicity is good PR as long as they spell your name correctly. This year we managed to sidestep what seemed to be the inevitable controversy that comes with anything public in Amherst, avoiding the clash of egos and grandstanding for media attention that resulted in far less media coverage leading up to the B-I-G event; but still the crowds (especially children) came: to enjoy the show, and thank those who make our little piece of the world safer.

With military color guard in the lead

Berkshire Highlanders serenade the eager crowds

Town center was packed with parents and children

Our youngest performer

The Bucket Man plays to a big crowd
Kendrick Park provided plenty of shade

A long line of emergency vehicles

Thomas the Train

My home sweet home

July 4th Parade: 10th time is the charm

The Amherst July 4th Parade Committee is looking forward to the longest, largest line of march since reviving the grand tradition almost exactly nine years ago. More police, fire, and military hardware will roll through town center than at any time in Amherst's 252 year history.

Bring the kids, flags and good cheer. It's gonna be glorious!

3:00 PM starting on South Pleasant Street near Amherst College Orr Rink and ambles directly through town center all the way to Triangle Street

Taste of Freedom

Now that the 20th annual Taste of Amherst is safely stowed under under a bulging beltline, it's time to start thinking about the next B-I-G thing in Amherst town center. And just so folks will be reminded, the red white and blue July 4 Parade banner went up this morning for a week of flight in that prime location.

Both Senator Scott Brown and Governor Deval Patrick have been invited and their offices return called to inquire about the particulars. After the devastating tornadoes that ripped their way through western Massachusetts it sure would be nice if our top political leaders showed their faces out this way to celebrate the birth of freedom and power of resilience.

Pool to open this summer

No, not the War Memorial outdoor pool closed two years ago--but town officials decided to think outside the empty pool box and provide a way for folks to beat the heat this summer. The Middle School indoor Pool will be open for the first time in four years to the general public on a limited basis for open and lap swimming. Some of the $65,000 Town Meeting appropriated last month will go to pay the school department to cover the overhead and the balance put towards repairing the War Memorial Pool for a reopening next year. The town will also apply to the state for grant money to help cover the costs, estimated at $175,000.

And speaking of family values, at the very beginning of the three-hour meeting Alisa Brewer made it a point to actually affirm that the Amherst Select Board is officially marching in the privately run July 4 Parade. The past few years some of the five marched as individuals. Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe, and Ms. Brewer are confirmed, Aaron Hayden probably yes and Diana Stein due to "bad knees" will not march. Jim Wald was absent from the meeting.

A birthday bash to remember

For the first time in ten years the Amherst July 4 Parade is steaming towards showtime free of political fireworks. Yes, hard to believe in Amherst we can now actually have a civic celebration with all the pomp and circumstance minus the minions who think any event on public property is fair game for pushing a political agenda.

After a hiatus of 26 years, the July 4 Parade was revived in 2002--that dark time immediately following 9/11--as a venue for thanking civilian public safety and military personnel who routinely lay their lives on the line to perform their duty: keeping our citizens safe.

The traditional Parade is a loud, festive and fun affair--especially for children. Again this year the patriotic showcase will feature marching bands, color guards, farm equipment, dancing horses, politicians, firetrucks, police cruisers, and military hardware, including F-15 fighter jets, those magnificent war birds from Barnes Air National Guard in Westfield.

The July 4 Parade launches at 3:00 PM starting on South Pleasant Street near Amherst College Orr Rink and ambles directly through town center all the way to Triangle Street. The Parade Committee is made up entirely of unpaid volunteers and it's financed via private donations from individuals and businesses.

Contributions can be sent to: July 4 Parade Committee, PO Box 2145, Amherst, Ma 01004

Freedom's just another word...

So a Mississippi Judge who obviously--like a few too many judges--thinks of himself as God, threw an attorney in jail for failure to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Although the attorney did respectfully stand while the courtroom came to attention.

In the 1995 Hurley decision the Supreme Court unanimously decided that the First Amendment also prevents an individual or group from saying something they do not wish to say. In this case a private parade committee; thus, as a private organization, the judges upheld the notion that they can select which messages are expressed to onlookers and which messages are not.

The town of Amherst already ran afoul of this clear-as-day decision when they tried to deny the privately run Amherst July 4 Parade Committee a permit due to restrictions on the signs that marching groups could carry. You know, the very same rules the town used when it organized a 350th Anniversary Parade.

The ACLU instantly set the People's Republic strait, and the Parade continues in the traditional old fashioned way.

The greatest freedom our flag represents is the right to burn it.

But I do indeed cringe when unbalanced individuals or groups push the envelope, such as a pastor threatening to burn the Koran on 9/11, or the KKK wanting to publicly dress up in their sheets or neo-nazis to march through Skokie, a heavily Jewish suburb of Chicago.

The Supreme Court yesterday heard oral arguments about whether a whacko religious group that should be ignored has the right to hold homophobic signs while picketing outside the funerals of American soldiers who died for their country in far off Iraq or Afghanistan. Icky. Icky. Icky!

But, that is the price we pay for our freedom. I remember once seeing my wife and another dear old friend wearing burkas, and it was not a pretty sight.

And the children shall lead...

The oldest continuous July 4 Parade in town kicked off this morning and the kids came on bicycles, carts, wagons and little four wheel peddle devices of all make and manor. And they proudly displayed the colors of the day: red, white and blue.

The South Amherst Bike Parade has been a patriotic staple for over 100 years. And is that not what freedom is all about. To ride your bike slowly down the center of paved road with friends and family cheering you on.

And they even had a marching band:

A birthday party to remember

So yes, the July 4th Parade went off without a hitch. Perfect weather, huge crowds in the downtown, a tight line of march with more marching units than ever. No protesters, no controversy. Life is good.


And yeah, the fireworks were pretty good too.


The Republican reports

Ch 22 TV reports

Happy Birthday America!

So yes folks, even though you have not read a thing in the local papers about battles with the town over anti-war protesters crashing the party, the July 4th Parade will kick off from Amherst College up the hill to town center starting at 3:00 PM.

And those fabulous F-15 fighter jets from Barnes Air National Guard will swing by low and fast to start things off with a bang.

No, Robert Cohen and his famous "F_ck the draft" jacket will not be appearing, and neither will the KKK. Just good old fashioned firetrucks, police cars, marching bands, clowns and lots of smiling kids.

Moms everywhere will be serving apple pie after the show.

A stand up guy comes out

State Senator Stan Rosenberg, Dave Sullivan (our next DA) and Congressman Olver march in the Amherst July 4 Parade.

UPDATE: 4:00 PM: The Associated Press picked up the story (from the Springfield Republican, not the Gazette.) Yikes!

UPDATE: Tuesday 10:00 AM
The Springfield Republican reports:

I had wondered how my friends at the Springfield Republican were going to handle this story. After all, it is news.

But then, Stan went to their competition the Daily Hampshire Gazette (with a five or ten times smaller readership) with his coming out column, although he also distributed it July 4th morning to a large email listserve as well.

Safe bet the Amherst Bulletin will reprint Stan's column this Thursday, but it will be interesting to see if they assign a reporter to also do a follow up story on the reactions thus far (note to reporters: feel free to quote any of my Anon Nitwits.)

#########

Original Post: Monday morning
So Stan's well-written, well-timed coming out column in the July 4 edition of the Daily Hampshire Gazette reminded me of Michael Jackson's sudden death: initially shocking but after a second or two of reflection, hardly surprising.

And yes, kind of like the courtship/marriage of Anne Awad and Robie Hubley--the Select Board sweethearts--it was one of the worst kept secrets in Amherst.

If the American flag and July 4 represent anything at all it's freedom. Gay marriage, a Massachusetts's milestone, certainly qualifies. Stan Rosenberg has always been a stand up guy. On July 4th he never stood taller.

From: Rosenberg, Stan (SEN)
To: amherstac@aol.com
Sent: Mon, Jul 6, 2009 11:30 am
Subject: RE: Today's July 4 Gazette column

Thanks again both for your email and for coming up to me at the parade. It means a lot to have such a positive response to the column and from a very wide ranging group of people all across my district and beyond. Have a great summer now that he sun has returned!

From: amherstac@aol.com [mailto:amherstac@aol.com]
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 11:35 AM
To: Rosenberg, Stan (SEN)
Subject: Re: Today's July 4 Gazette column

Hey Stan,
You're welcome.

Getting on my bike right now!
Larry

Old fashioned July 4th Parade (even in Amherst!)

Amherst PD motorcycle cops lead the parade.
Immediately followed by VFW color guard
And then Parade Co-Grand Marshal's Police Chief Charlie Scherpa and Fire Chief Keith Hoyle (both BIG men in more ways than one)

Tractors representing Amherst's agrarian youth
Smokey the bear (he too is anti-smoking)
A very, very BIG tractor.
Hadley's colorful Quint (Amherst has one coming soon)
Yeah, the Amherst League of Women Voters carried "approved" signs although I'm told they were pretty aggressive about handing out literature along the parade route and turned off a lot of women and children (my family for sure.)

And what if they gave a war protest and nobody showed up? John Langford (at age 70, the epitome of aging hippie) had an unapproved war protest sign but never managed to actually hoist it in the air.

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it does it make a sound?

Amherst July 4: And so it ends

Amherst July 4 Parade: And so it begins...

Amherst VFW 12:30 PM

"full of sound and fury..."

UPDATE: July 3'rd 2:30 PM
The Republican Reports
(and of course the League of Women Voters did not make a contribution to the Parade to offsets significant costs to produce.)

#################################################################
So after eight years of constant sniping, brief skirmishes and a few outright battles over the First Amendment “rights” of anti-war protesters to advertise, oops I mean march, in the Amherst July 4’th Parade—privately organized, privately funded and supported by a 9-0 Supreme Court decision (and most recently the local ACLU) to exclude offtopic messages-- it has come to this.

Last year under extreme town government pressure the Parade Committee relaxed the rules to allow any group to march with a sign designating their name; if that name had an anti-war component, so be it. And what happened?

The local chapter of the 'Iraq Veterans against the War' allowed aging hippies who never served their country to march behind their officially approved banner with signs contrary to the spirit of the Parade.

This year the Town Mangler banned town equipment unless the Parade was open to all who wished to march--no matter the spirit of their signage. Even though the Parade Committee wished to honor outgoing Police Chief Charlie Scherpa and Fire Chief Keith Hoyle by making them Co-Grand Marshal’s.

Once again the Parade Committee relaxed the restriction (so the Chiefs' can--and will-- march) allowing additional signage other than just the official name of the group but they had to “meet with the Parade Committee to ensure that the sign plans are consistent with the spirit of the Parade”.

That deadline was even extended after the Friday 6/5 meeting with SB Chair Princess Stephanie and our good friend SB member Alisa Brewer to well beyond 6/19. And the result?

Only the 'League of Women Voters' (you know that “non-partisan group”) petitioned and was approved to march and their signage concerns voting, universal health care, pro-abortion but nothing concerning war.

The conflict in Iraq is over, and we won. President Bush is gone, replaced by the second-coming-of-Christ, President Obama who is now tougher than Bush on the war in Afghanistan (where the Son of a Bitch who vaporized the Towers is probably hiding in a hole.)

Just yesterday--under President Obama's orders--the US launched a new major offensive against the Taliban. But not a peep from Amherst liberals.

Hmmm…

The dangers of blogging

So yeah I'm a little concerned about bringing my MacBook Pro 17" by Airport Security or Customs as we enter Korea...with black electrical tape and oversized paper clips making it resemble a bomb and all.

It started as a crack in the very back corner where the monitor hinges to the main frame and I noticed it a day or two after live blogging the Select board meeting where the Town Mangler announced he was withholding a permit for the private committee who has run the July 4'th Parade after a 26 years hiatus for the past seven years, in other words, the People's Republic was "taking over" the July 4'th Parade. I guess I closed it a little too hard that night.

I joked on my post back then that "no chairs or desks were injured in the making of this film" (turn up your volume at the very end of the clip) little realizing my computer was indeed injured.

A Mexican standoff

Helen Thelen , Stephanie O'Keeffe, Alisa Brewer, Kevin Joy. Friday

So the trials and tribulations of the July 4’th Parade in the People’s Republic of Amherst is starting to resemble an old Buck Rogers movie serial with every week a new cliffhanger ending to the ongoing sad saga.

At last week's Select Board meeting (out of nowhere) former Lordship Gerry Weiss issued a public “plea” for the private Parade Committee to relent “just this year” and allow “free speech” in the Parade line of march so that the town could allow Police and Fire vehicles so that retiring police chief Charlie Scherpa and Fire Chief Keith Hoyle could lead the parade as Grand Marshals.

I asked the previous week: why can’t the town—just this year--allow the Parade Committee their First Amendment right (upheld by a 9-0 Supreme Court decision) to decide "what not to say" and allow town equipment so that two retiring chiefs with over 75 years of service could be publicly thanked by the people--especially children--in the community?

On Friday Princess Stephanie and Alisa Brewer (one shy of a Select board quorum) came to the VFW to press the issue with the July 4’th Parade Committee. No shots fired, but no treaty signed.

Interestingly last Monday Alisa Brewer said the town’s 250’th Parade Committee had created a superb float that would be in the Hadley 350’th Parade this coming Saturday and the Amherst July 4’th Parade.

Hmmm…even if the float is built with all volunteer labor and donated materials it is still town property. But town officials are allowing this vehicle in the July 4’th Parade even though enforcing a ban on police and fire vehicles unless the Committee surrenders their principals?

Oh, I forgot: the town’s 250’ th Parade is being held to a totally different set of standards than is the private July 4’th Parade.

Do as I say! (not as I do)

So let me get this strait: the Town Mangler wants anybody and everybody to march in the private July 4’th Parade committee line of march (no matter their message) but the official town of Amherst 250’th Parade Committee can control participants “In order to maintain the quality of the Parade” ” and that participating units must be “honoring the objectives of the Parade Committee in presenting the Parade.”

Hmmm…kind of like the July 4’Th Parade Committee trying to promote a good old-fashioned Rockwell kind of affair (including town police and fire equipment—especially with both Chiefs retiring this summer) celebrating and commemorating the birth of our great nation.

Click to enlarge/read

And a very sad response

You know the drill: Click the photo to ENLARGE/read