Lazy summer day

Yesterday: 7:00 PM

One of Amherst's "loved to death" treasures (kind of like Free Speech.)

The Springfield Republican reports:

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.)

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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

The new Quint is here, the new Quint it here

Yeah, you would kind of think a town with a $60+ million budget could afford a press relations person to let folks know when cool new equipment like the Quint arrive--especially since we paid almost $635,000 for it.

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.)

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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…