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!
Hey Stan,
You're welcome.
Getting on my bike right now!
Larry
The "Reclaimer": This bad boy digs down 18" and shreds the material for reuse.
Job is farmed out to Warner Bros. but under oversight by Amherst DPW
Yesterday: 7:00 PM
State Senator Stan Rosenberg, Dave Sullivan (our next DA) and Congressman Olver march in the Amherst July 4 Parade.
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.
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.)
