"An Extreme Form Of Dissent"

 Hampshire College flag at half staff protesting election of Donald Trump

The pernicious burning of our flag at Hampshire College does not surprise me.  At all.

What does surprise me is College President Jonathan Lash had actually endorsed lowering the flag to half staff the day before, a violation of federal flag protocol, in response to the election of Donald Trump.

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 Hampshire College Board of Trustess statement

Symbolically that misses the mark because lowering the flag to half staff is always to mourn the death of an individual or a large group due to terrorism or natural disaster.    So a better response would have been to fly the flag upside down, which symbolizes dire distress.

15 years ago, only five weeks after 9/11, a group of Hampshire College students and one professor infiltrated an "Assembly for Patriotism" at nearby Amherst College and as the rally was winding down spread a large flag on the ground, stomped on it chanting "This flag does not represent us," and then burned two small American flags.

That photo of those two small flags ablaze in the hands of a nitwit dressed in all black appeared on the front page of the Boston Globe the next day setting off a firestorm.

In response Amherst College President Tom Gerety issued a public statement that perfectly addressed the sad situation.  Then and now:

   Amherst College Flag Burning 2001 by Larry Kelley on Scribd

DUI Triple Dishonor Roll

The errant vehicle demolished a bus shelter and killed a man waiting there Sunday night

Bus Stop late this afternoon

So I often get criticized on Twitter for using thumbnails from Google images of drunk driving fatal crashes to illustrate a drunk driving post because it does not reflect the actual incidents I cover with my routine "DUI Dishonor Roll" series shedding light on weekend arrests for drunk driving.

But every now and then, sadly, a local incident occurs that drives home my point:  Drunk drivers kill!  Last year over 10,000 innocent people.

Last weekend, in addition to the three drunk drivers APD took off the road, one still at large drunk driver screamed through town center on a beautiful Sunday night and directly trampled a 55-year-man sitting on a bench waiting for a PVTA bus.

Since the perp was piloting a commercial style heavy-duty truck and the victim was sitting, he stood no chance whatsoever of surviving.

 The Death Machine

Police have impounded the vehicle, but since it was reported stolen early the next morning, it is exceedingly hard to prove who was driving it.

About to graduate UMass student Danny Haley, age 24, was slaughtered by a wrong way drunk driver on Rt 116 in Hadley in 2012.  To this day his family keeps up a memorial

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In Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday all three APD weekend arrests had their cases continued until next month.

 Matthew Vasquez, age 27

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Kyle Kitlinski, age 21

Luis Gonzales, age 21

Salute

Amherst Town Common 11:00 AM

About 50 citizens showed up for the town ceremony on the historic North Common somewhat under the big ceremonial US flag the town flies on special occasions along with the 30 commemorative flags now flying in the downtown.

Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer gave a short measured speech about how the town needs to be accepting of veterans even if they seem somewhat different from our usual demographic.

 Select Board Chair Alisa Brewer briefly addresses the crowd

The Veterans Day ceremony/observance was revived exactly 15 years ago in the immediate wake of 9/11.

It had been at least a generation or maybe two since the town hosted a Veterans Day ceremony as back then the town was far more interested in hosting/celebrating the anti-war movement, which occasionally crossed into anti-veteran territory.

In fact the newly revived ceremony in 2001 was crashed by abrasive protesters (the invasion of Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden had just begun) who outnumbered the more respectful celebrants who dared to show up.

Just when things were about to escalate to a riot stage, a pair of majestic A-10 warthogs screamed in from the south and flew over the heated crowd at the lowest altitude I have ever seen.

Everything came to a dead silent stop -- kind of like slapping a person who has briefly gone hysterical.  Folks on both sides came to their senses, and quietly left the field of battle. 

 Today's ceremony was nothing but respectful

Don't Mess With AFD!

Jordan Ortiz

On Monday morning in Eastern Hampshire District Court I had the distinct pleasure of sitting next to AFD Chief Tim Nelson who took time out of his busy schedule to attend the arraignment of a UMass student who assaulted two of his highly trained employees.

You know, the good guys (and gals) who are only trying to help.

Since the young woman they were trying to assist was overly intoxicated it's a safe bet that alcohol played a major role in Mr. Ortiz's combative behavior.  But like a drunk driver that slaughters an innocent bystander (as we saw in town center that same weekend) alcohol is no excuse.

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His case was continued to next month and by then he will probably come to a plea deal that will certainly call for purchasing a new jacket for the EMT, a letter of apology to AFD, and court costs.

Narrowly Winning The Popular Vote

Hillary Clinton won the popular vote Tuesday by a razor thin margin

If narrowly winning the popular vote was the end-all-be-all we would have a different President elect today, but according to the system we've used since our inception -- the electoral college -- she got clobbered.

Just as the Amherst ballot question that same day for the new $67 Mega School passed by the same razor thin margin as Secretary Clinton did nationwide, but if Town Meeting perfectly mirrors that vote on Monday night it will be considered a blow out failure because 66.67% support is required.

This morning despite the best efforts of Chair Alisa Brewer the Select Board decided not to overly play politics with the issue by simply putting out a statement saying the ballot question -- which was originally reported by a mainstream newspaper to have failed -- has passed by a comfortable enough margin (122 votes or less than 1%) to consider it passed.

The Chair also threatened to all but castigate anyone who would dare request a recount as being politically motivated to sabotage the process.  Ouch.

In order for the bulldozers to break ground the Mass School Building Authority requires a majority vote at the ballot box AND a two-thirds vote of Town Meeting.  Should the motion fail to garner two thirds support on Monday night the Select Board could call another Town Meeting before February 2nd to get the required approval.

Twenty years ago Town Meeting overwhelmingly supported the $22 million debt exclusion Override for the High School renovation/expansion but it failed at the ballot box the first time.  Town official brought it back within the 120 day deadline and it passed the second time (but still not even close to the wide margin shown by "Representative" Town Meeting).

In fact only once before out of all the Overrides over the past 25 years did the Select Board put the question to the voters first before having Town Meeting take it up.  In that case it passed because the pressure was put on Town Meeting to "support the will of the voters".

In this case, however, considering the high number of student voters who turned out -- which is typical for a Presidential election -- and how razor thin the margin of victory for the Override ballot question, Town Meeting will be under no such pressure.

The Select Board previously voted 100% unanimously to support the Mega School

Not By (Nearly) Enough

Wildwood $67 million Mega School faces crucial vote next week in Town Meeting

In a democratic society such as ours, when is a 50.38% majority of the vote not even close?  When it requires 66.67% super majority.

Already the spinmeisters are saying Town Meeting will have to support the new $67 million Mega School because "the people have spoken," and if they don't critics will say they do not represent the town.

And archaic Town Meeting is currently in the cross hairs for extermination by the Charter Commission.

Okay fine, if Town Meeting votes next week EXACTLY as the town voted yesterday, with an extremely narrow mirror image 50.38% of the vote then the measure fails.  Not even close.

In the past whenever a borrowing or zoning measure that requires a two-thirds vote only garners 50.38% of Town Meeting support it is pretty much considered an almost embarrassing loss.

Since newbie college student voters probably accounted for 30% of the total (14,695 voters or 66.27% overall turnout) many middle of the road Town Meeting members will be perfectly comfortable questioning their wisdom on this issue, which will impact year round homeowners for the next 25 years.

Finance Committee graph on Mega School Override impact

Too Big To Fail?

Direct mail is still a very effective form of advertising (more so than newspapers)

UPDATE:  Question 5 passed by the narrowest of margin:  6,627 yes to 6,604 (or 50.09% of the vote), which will not be overly convincing to Town Meeting where it will require a 66.67% vote of support.

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The Select Board has called an unusual Thursday meeting to discuss the $67 million Mega School and react to today's vote, which I'm guessing will be No.

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The No folks showed far more enthusiasm, did better research, raised more money and simply outmaneuverd the phoned in old style campaign of the Yes folks.

An early large contribution allowed SASS to use direct mail which even in this digital age is still a powerful way to get the word out.

The Select Board should have taken Question 5 off the table when Superintendent Maria Geryk took her $300K and ran.

Although her chosen blueprint of (sort of) twin co-located schools grades 2-6 will never pass muster with a majority of parents and teachers who prefer two independent K-6 schools even if they are "co-located."

So what happens if Question 5 fails?  Town Meeting still has to vote on it and could conceivably still give it a two-thirds vote of support.  But then, that's about as likely as Donald Trump winning Amherst today.

And even if it narrowly passes today it still needs that hard to achieve two thirds vote of Town Meeting, and some members will argue the only reason it won today was because of the student voter turnout, which could easily be 30% or more of today's total.

You don't have to offer a Chinese Immersion program to appreciate the old saying, "May we live in interesting times."

   Ballot Question 5 Get Out The Vote Costs by Larry Kelley on Scribd