9/11/10

How can you forget! How can any American possibly forget?

Those magnificent Twin Towers, standing at attention for a generation, suddenly, without warning--like bolts out of the blue--GONE. Victims of evil beyond civilized imagination. A new world order etched in the blood of thousands of innocent civilians.
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Last year's post (some things never change):

It's been far too many beers, too many tears and not nearly enough years--as the pain is still palpable. But mostly on THAT anniversary, especially during THOSE morning hours when the September sun is usually bright against a clear blue sky and daily routine sets a seemingly safe steady course.

Where were you when you heard the news? And as bits and pieces of information first floated in, when did you figure it out? Did you worry about a friend or loved one now suddenly thrust in harms way? Did you wonder what landmark, loaded with innocent people, was next?

Nine years or ninety, we must never forget.

I will be standing silently in town center on the morning of 9/11 from 8:45 until 10:30 (also attending Amherst Fire Department ceremony in front of Central Station at 9:45 AM) clutching an American flag and my three-year-old daughter. Feel free to join me, if only for a moment or two.



Amherst Ground Zero commemorative flag

Not just an Irish thing

DA race gets desperate

So former Assistant District Attorney Mike Cahillane's campaign for District Attorney is pulling out all the stops as they just trumpeted an endorsement from Amherst School Committee Chair Irv Rhodes.

Bonus points, I suppose, because Irv is black. Especially since Cahillane's boss, Elizabeth Scheibel came into such criticism for pressing forward the Jason Vassell case which was recently pretty much dismissed--a case Mr. Cahillane had a big hand in prosecuting.

Gotta wonder about Cahillane's campaign spinmeister using the People's Republic of Amherst as representative of the hard working 'Happy Valley', all those normal towns and cities that encompass the Northwestern District like Hadley, Hatfield, Belchertown, Easthampton or South Hadley.

Speaking as a 5th generation Amherst resident, I think not. And Mr. Rhodes will probably catch some grief for not clearly spelling out that he was speaking strictly for himself and not the Amherst School Committee, a charge SC member Catherine Sanderson is pelted with all the time for daring to have an open, transparent blog reporting school committee concerns.

Earlier today Dave Sullivan's campaign picked up yet another heavyweight endorsement from longtime judge (retired) Alvertus J. Morse.

#####################Cahillane campaign press release:
Amherst School Committee Chair Backs Cahillane for DA

“I am Irv Rhodes, chair of the Amherst School Committee and member of the Regional School Committee and I am writing to endorse and support Mike Cahillane for District Attorney.”


“Mike has extensive prosecutorial experience as can be witnessed by his
experience working as an Assistant District Attorney in the very office that
he seeks as a candidate for District Attorney. I am particularly impressed
as a former educator, with Mike's track record of fighting cybercrime by
going into schools to conduct workshops with kids as young as those in the
first and second grades. Additionally Mike has done a number of training
sessions with school administrators, guidance counselors and other staff on
how to identify and prevent bullying behavior and he wants to expand this
outreach, if elected, because he knows that it is important to prevent crime as well as prosecute those who break the law.”

Irv Rhodes

Labor Day in the People's Republic

10:00 AM

The vast majority of Americans slaughtered on the morning of 9/11, just a week after celebrating Labor Day, were toiling at their place of employment after settling in for just another routine Tuesday.

Of course, that is what the cowardly, malevolent mastermind counted on for maximum damage. And had the first plane impact been only an hour later and many floors lower the carnage would have been exponentially worse.

Amherst can fly the 29 commemorative American flags to celebrate the Labor movement in America (hardly a non-violent affair) but will remove them tomorrow, leaving barely a trace of the red-white-and-blue to inhabit the downtown this coming 9/11.

Ludlow knows how to honor, respect and remember 9/11

"The horrer...the horrer!"

Sorry madam Chair it really, really is about how "horrible 9/11 was." And that, precisely, is all it's about!

Will Amherst remember?

UPDATE: 7:15 PM. Okay, so I was wrong. Never bet on Amherst to do the right thing. Tonight the illustrious Select Board voted 3-2 against flying the American flags in the downtown this September 11. Mr Wald and Ms. Brewer voted in favor. O'Keeffe, Hayden and Stein voted no.

And in fact, they made the current once-every-three-year policy even more restrictive by voting to fly them only once every five years.

The Springfield Republican reports

The Amherst Bulletin 9/11/08
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10:30AM

So when the sound and the fury subsides the Amherst Select Board tonight will, inevitable, do the right thing and allow the 29 commemorative flags to fly in the downtown this year to remember our most tragic losses on 9/11.

I say this knowing Chair Stephanie O'keeffe is a politician first but a flag lover second and would never go on record voting against the American flag. Seasoned Select Board member Alisa Brewer is one-for-one voting to fly the flags annually, and obviously rookie member Jim Wald, a historian by trade, will support it since the only reason it's on the brief agenda tonght is because he requested it; otherwise, as Stehanie said on Monday"'the policy (not flying them this year) would stand."



The Springfield Republican reports (as usual, Comments are the best)

UMass, ARA, Town partnership leaps forward!

Today Chancellor Robert Holub signed a strategic agreement with the Town of Amherst and the Amherst Redevelopment Authority to greatly enhance the gateway to UMass, the state's flagship of higher education.

The agreement calls for a conveyance of property formerly knows as "frat row"-- a seedy collection of blighted buildings purchased by the University and demolished a few years ago. The Gateway Project will bring urban renewal to the neighborhood with a mixed used commercial development of higher end student housing and commercial business connecting the downtown with the University.

With the incoming Umass freshman class the largest in history this agreement will go a long way towards keeping Umass an attractive destination for students and faculty as well as boosting the downtown and Amherst's commercial tax base.


click link below to read agreement:

Agreement with Umass/ARA/Town

It only comes but once a year

12:30 PM Select Board to discuss/vote flags fate for 9/11

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephanie O'Keeffe
To: Larry Kelley
Sent: Tue, Aug 31, 2010 11:56 am
Subject: 9/11 flag policy to be addressed

Hi Larry --

You're in luck. We have to schedule another meeting this week to discuss plans for an Interim Town Manager. A Select Board member has requested that we also take up the 9/11 flag question, so we will.

The flag discussion will be our first item: 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, 9/2 in the Town Room. The agenda (soon to be posted, if it isn't already) notes five minutes for the discussion, but that is just because I need to start the Interim discussion immediately after it, and I have no untimed items to fill any blank space that might result if I were to schedule longer than is needed. The flag discussion will take as long as it needs to.

Take care.

Stephanie

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephanie O'Keeffe
To: Larry Kelley
Sent: Tue, Aug 31, 2010 1:09 pm
Subject: room change

... make that the First Floor Meeting Room, not the Town Room.

Sorry for the confusion.

Stephanie

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9:30 PM. Hot copy (last night). Updated 2nd video posted at 10:00 PM

So I guess I will just let the videos of tonight's illustrious Amherst Select Board meeting speak for themselves.

Interesting that the Chair blows me off by saying the Open Meeting Law requires anything to come under discussion be posted 48 hours in advance on an official agenda thus they could not possibly now take a simple vote on this 9/11 flag issue, yet an hour later they go into a surprise "executive session" to talk about the Town Manager's retirement package.

These days they just throw "executive session" on every agenda and if you don't use it there is no violation. Tonight it does appear on the agenda but as an "untimed item".

After an hour in secret session they come back into public session to announce Mr. Shaffer is gone as of 9/30 with four months salary (about the same as School Superintendent Alberto Rodriguez absconded with when he suddenly flew the coop a few months back).