Why I don't show off

Not that he was showing off of course:

Bully the blogger

Bully version of bet (pretty clear to me)

My original version: even clearer

So retired professor Ackerman, obviously with lots of time on his hands, must have been one of those professors who let the grad students do all the research. If he had bothered d to read two paragraphs beyond the lead of Scott’s Merzbach's article from LAST YEAR he would have discovered the $10,000 challenge was in the form of a bet. One the town manager did not have the chutzpa to take.

And if he just stayed at the Select Board meeting for another half-hour he could have asked me directly about it since I was on the agenda for the 9/11 flag issue at 7:05 PM.

That would be the 5’th time I have attempted to make that kind of wager with a town official. The other times it related to Cherry Hill revenue prediction and if any of the officials taken those bet I would have won—or I should say local charities would have been enriched.

In fact if Mr. Ackerman, also an Amherst Bulletin columnists--so you would think he knows how to research and corroborate material--had read the online Amherst Bulletin version of the story, I added a comment where I would give the Town Manager two-to-one odds, or $20,000.

I guess maybe His Lordship the Select Board Chair set a strange precedent by publicly whipping and trying to silence my blog (so I must be doing something right). So now we get social activists trying to get the Select Board to collect on bets that were never taken. Only in Amherst.

By the dawns early light: 9/11...Remembered

Amherst Town Center 6:35 AM

CH. 3 TV covers the People's Republic on 9/11

Amherst Fire Dept 10:00 AM
Note what pilots refer to as "severe clear" blue sky.



Springfield Republican 9/11 editorial. Very well done!

9/11 Deja vu

Sorry this is a tad long and slightly rambling, but I knew acting Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer would allow me pretty much free reign. Had 'His Lordship' been there I would have honed it down to only three minutes.

The People's Republic WILL remember

The original page one story 9/11/01 was below the fold, but prominent enough to get the A.P.'s attention as it went out over the national wire around dawn. Here we are seven years later and it's above the fold. Go figure.


UPDATE: 10:30 Am: Love the photo the Republican website is now using. It's funny because this same photographer took a photo of my daughter Kira a couple weeks back at the Westfield fair that made the Front page of the Republican. And I instantly remembered him from this photo shoot from 4 or 5 years ago (but he did not remember me)

Today (7 years later) Front Page Spfld Republican article

9:45 PM

So with relatively little discussion the Select Board voted 2-1 with 1 absent (and 1 relocated to South Hadley) to allow the 29 commemorative flags to fly on 9/11 for the first time in five years.

Ms. Brewer sort of tried to make a deal with me (what the Hell am I the official flag spokesperson?) to accept His Lordship’s compromise allowing the flags to fly once every three years but I made no promises. My main goal was to get them up every 9/11, so at least they are guaranteed to fly this Thursday.

As expected Alisa Brewer and Stephanie O’Keeffe voted “yes” and Diana Stein voted “no”.

From Stephanie’s blog illuminating their Select Board packet for this evening:
• A written statement submitted by Gerry Weiss (who will not be present at the meeting) about the commemorative flag issue, recommending that they be displayed on September 11th every three years beginning this year, as a compromise measure reflecting the one-third of Town Meeting members (and the assumption that they represent one-third of the community) who voted to support urging the Select Board to display the flags annually on that date

Details of the Amherst Fire Department’s September 11th ceremony plans at Central Fire Station, involving assembling at 9:55 a.m., ringing a bell, lowering the flag to half staff, a minute of silence, prayer by a chaplain, “Amazing Grace” played by a piper, ringing a bell and raising the flag

an unprecedented historical tragedy

Hope springs eternal...even in Amherst

 Commemorative flags in town center

Yeah, they too remember (lousy bastards)

9/10/01: The Eve of Destruction

So now it turns out 'His Lordship' Select Board Chair Gerry Weiss will not even be present on Monday night for the 9/11 flag issue (7:05 pm). Fair enough. But to go one stunningly further he actually supports flying the flags this year, and again three years from now (the 10’th anniversary) because Town Meeting voted by a two-thirds majority AGAINST flying the 29 flags on 9/11. Thus leaving a small plurality of one-third in favor of doing the right thing. So to honor the wishes of that one-third he will allow them to fly once every three years.

Hmmm. Why not fly one-third of them every year? Or should John Kerry have become Co-President in 2004 because he garnered half the vote?

Most stupid political reasoning I have ever heard! But what the Hell—this is The 'People’s Republic of Amherst'--where the American flag never wins, so I will take it.


Monday's upcoming SB meeting courtesy of Select Person O'keeffe (who will be there)

http://stephanietownmeeting.blogspot.com
Thursday, May 17, 2007
With apologies to the Bard

This session was much ado about nothing.

Article 39: Commemorative Flags. Petitioner Larry Kelley made – let’s face it – a stunningly thoughtful and moderate presentation about the first and nearly-final casualties of September 11th, and how they were both gay men, and how broad the diversity was of innocent lives lost on that day. He said that that is what the flag stands for – not militarism or the war in Iraq, but the people of the U.S. He noted the contrast of the Select Board’s unanimous vote to fly the rainbow flag for the anniversary of the gay marriage decision, and how they then unanimously voted to take no position on this proposal to fly the commemorative flags at half-staff every 9/11, and said that the two people he had previously referenced might have found that ironic.

Gerry Weiss said the Select Board would let Town Meeting decide. Anne Awad talked about being on the Board when 9/11 occurred, and all the various flag flying requests the board gets, and all the various tragedies that could be marked. She said that the main Town flag is lowered to half-staff on 9/11 and that it is a somber event. She said the commemorative flags seem more celebratory, and more suitable for Fourth of July. She urged members to oppose the article.

A couple of members spoke to the multitude of tragedies all over the world and throughout history, including those perpetuated by town namesake Lord Jeffery Amherst. One suggested voting against the article in favor of establishing a committee to more broadly honor all such events, and another just wanted it defeated.

A member speaking in support said the red flag stripes denote American blood shed for this country’s freedom. Another suggested that dates for commemorating other tragedies be brought forth as well. Another said that he regarded the article as a call for a day of reflection for a tragic event that affected all of us. Another said that we shouldn’t do what our government has done and link that event to the war.

A member made a motion to refer the article to the Human Rights Commission, not as a way of defeating it, she said, but as a way of reshaping the article in a way that would be less inclined to divide the meeting.

There was a standing vote on the motion to refer. It failed, and I apparently didn’t write down the totals. I voted against referral.

Someone asked what the six holidays are for which the commemorative flags are flown, and if any of those had them at half-staff. The answer to the latter was no, and to the former was: Patriots Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, July 4th, Labor Day and Veterans Day.

There was a tally vote on the article – 41 Yes and 96 No. I voted Yes.

This was the third issue of the night that made my brain hurt, and all for different reasons.

First of all, I love the flag, and I have none of the compunctions about it that many do. My personal patriotism isn’t contingent on who occupies the White House or the state of our foreign policy. I recognize that many don’t feel that way.

You get an article like this, and no matter how thoughtfully it was presented, and how thoughtfully it was both supported and objected to, it becomes bigger than the specific issue at hand. It becomes an issue of all the various ways people feel about the flag and the country. It becomes a mutual provocation. It becomes a test. Its significance gets blown out of all proportion by those on both sides of the vote.

I didn’t really like the article. To me, it felt vaguely like using the 9/11 tragedy to provoke an expected reaction. So for a while, I thought I might oppose it. But I also think that people are terribly intolerant of more traditional and optimistic opinions of the flag, and I’m tired of that. How come being progressive and open-minded only applies to that with which you agree?

So I went back to logic similar to that which I used in supporting the resident alien voting article: it is important to some, and should be of little consequence to others. I don’t need to have commemorative flags at half-staff downtown to mark my 9/11 remembrance, but it doesn’t hurt. If you strip away all the overwrought Amherst stuff that becomes part and parcel of this article, it is really saying, “Should we fly flags downtown every year on 9/11?” And to that, I say – “Sure! Why not?” To me, answers to “why not” were not compelling, but of course, I was in the minority.

Keystone School Committee (Only in Amherst)

Stiletto-like fingernails slowly descending a large old style blackboard, a formal Catholic “High Mass” all in Latin, or a speech by Al Gore on Global Warming. Hmmm, I’m trying to think of what could be worse than attending a “retreat” of the Amherst Regional School Committee???

It would of course be 'Saturday Night Live' skit material if not for the fact that these duly elected regional officials consume the vast majority of Amherst’s $60+ million budget.

But not a single one of them came to office in an election that drew over 50% of the voters (at least in the case of Amherst School Committee members).

Kathleen Anderson definitely has a racial Great Oak log on her shoulder--but she wears it ever so prominently. So it was not big surprise she would boycott a retreat run by a white male. Of course you have to wonder if she ever requires emergency medical care or the services of the police does the responding public servant have to be a black female?

Dr. Merzbach, the most famous baby doctor in Amherst, delivered most of the townies I know. He was a white male--and I’m sure he gave boys, girls, Jews, Gentiles and People of Color the same equal, professional care.

When I call 911 with an emergency I don’t want the dispatcher to ask what race, creed, or color I am. Just do your damn job.

Even the crusty Gazette published an editorial today suggesting the retreat was a bad idea. Maybe they recognized themselves where a committee member said the local media looked the other way regarding retreats even though they are a clear violation of the Open Meeting Law.

So yeah, if they have this "retreat" I will be there. And I only hope the facility has wireless Internet and plenty of aspirin.

The Bully does its job