A Symbol of Hope

Editors Note: Amherst does fly the American flag on the Town Common and Police/Fire stations 24/7 365 days a year.

The town purchased "commemorative flags" (currently numbering 25) in the summer of 2001 using tax money assigned to the veterans department commemoration fund, and on the night of September 10, 2001 created a policy restricted them to only six occasions per year, one of which is Memorial Day.

The commemorative flags were allowed to fly on 9/11 on the first anniversary in 2002 and again in 2003 but not in 2004 thru 2009.  Amherst Town Meeting in 2007 turned down my "advisory" article  to the Select Board (as only the Select Board has authority over the public ways, so it's their call) by an astonishing two-thirds vote.

Under public pressure the Select Board in 2009 came up with a "compromise" based on the Town Meeting vote, saying that since one-third of Town Meeting supported the flags they can go up once every three years. So they flew in 2009.

Then in 2010 Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe (who voted in favor of the flags flying annually when she was a town meeting member) turned down my annual request and came up with another compromise only allowing the commemorative flags up every five years or what she called "milestone anniversaries".

Thus the commemorative flags flew in 2011 on the tenth anniversary and are currently not scheduled to fly again until 2016.

"A groundswell of people"

On the night of September 10, 2001 during a two hour discussion about everything both good and bad our flag represents, the most over-the-top statement came from a UMass professor and town meeting member who sacrilegiously branded our flag "a symbol of terrorism and death and fear and destruction and repression."

As she returned to her seat, a grandmotherly flag supporter said sternly, "Shame on you!"

On the night of August 27, 2012 Select Board Chair Stephanie O'Keeffe did not even vote on my request to fly those flags on 9/11, instead opting to pocket veto the idea. And as part of the excuse Ms. O'Keeffe seems to suggest that nobody in town cares whether the flags fly this year or not.

Shame!

Because I think she's wrong, and so does the media and every person I've encountered on the street over the past few days.

Just since Monday this sad story has been published with prominent placement in The Daily Hampshire Gazette, The Amherst Bulletin, Springfield Republican (note 100+ comments), WGGB Ch 40 and WWLP Ch 22 local TV, FoxNews national website and tomorrow morning on their national TV show, Fox and Friends.

And most sadly, one of the articles was picked up and published on the September 11th Families' Association website.

The Amherst Select Board routinely meets again on September 10, the eleventh anniversary of that infamous Eve of Destruction meeting. Let's hope they come to their senses and allow the commemorative flags to send a signal that in Amherst, like everywhere else in this great country of ours, we do care.

Deeply.

Amherst Firefighters Union supports flying the flags!

$aving a Camperdown? Yes!

 The stately Camperdown Elm on Amherst College Campus released from Death Row

Amherst College has wisely decided that you can't really put a price on a majestic historic treasure like their almost one of kind (in Amherst anyway) Camperdown elm.

Yes, Amherst's largest landowner and second best liberal arts college in America will pay the $100,000 cost to safely relocate the Camperdown to a new spot on Pratt Field rather than simply cut it down and chalk it up to collateral damage in the $12.5 million renovation project.

 Trees on both sides of the Camperdown will not survive realignment of track

Amherst College Director of Facilities Jim Brassord announced the stunning news last night to a group of concerned neighbors (concerned about the Camperdown, noise, traffic, etc) while giving them an update on plans for the major construction project impacting their neighborhood. The project starts after the football season finishes this fall. 

 Camperdown Elm will provide shade for generations of Amherst College students to come

Nobody knows for sure when the tree was planted, but just over a 120 years ago, when Pratt Field was first constructed is a pretty good bet.  And yes they can easily live to be 200 or more years old.

Sure $100K is a lot of money, but less than 1% of the overall budget for the project.

 Amherst Shade Tree Committee wrote to College President Biddy Martin pleading for  Camperdown's salvation

All the Camperdowns in existence today emanate from a single tree created by grafting a mutant alien branch found on the forest floor to a Wych elm on the estate of the Earl of Camperdown in Dundee, Scotland circa 1835.

Combine that unique pedigree with the weeping nature of Camperdown canopy and it's no wonder it attracts an almost religious like following among tree lovers.

Historical preservation at its finest

Amherst Flies Commemorative Flags

 Commemorative flags went up this morning, but will come down on Tuesday

Yeah, for Labor Day.

Labor Day is not really a festive party-hardy kind of care free holiday, it is supposed to "commemorate" the struggle -- punctuated by violence -- to bring about safer working conditions for the tired, huddled masses of workers via unions.   Strength in numbers.

How many employees trudged to work on that stunningly beautiful  morning almost eleven years ago, reporting for duty to the Twin Towers or police and fire houses in New York City, or the Pentagon, or Logan International Airport, never to return?

How does it make them feel?!

Eye see you

Schools In

A good crowd under perfect blue skies on the Amherst town common tonight

Amherst Regional Public Schools start tomorrow -- except, alas, kinder garden and preschool -- so tonight school officials threw a party for kids and their happy parents on the Amherst town common. Vehicular traffic was heavy as seemingly all roads lead to Amherst, the education capital of the Happy Valley.

State Representative Ellen Story was hard to miss in red skirt

Umass dorms open tomorrow and 4,560 freshmen -- er, I mean -- "first-year class",  will descend on Amherst just in time for the Blue Moon on Friday night. The 46th Annual Community Breakfast was also held this morning with new Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy doing the staged schmooze routine.

Let's hope his act plays better than his predecessor, and he can bring some long-term stability as captain of the state's flagship of higher education.

Mourning Overload?

 Amherst Town Center, this morning

Yes the town flag is once again at half staff by Governor's orders, this time for U.S. Army Major Steven Brothers of Arlington, Massachusetts who died on May 30 from leukemia .  This now makes the 5th time in a week, all for military personnel, 80% of whom died by non-military related causes.

Makes you wonder if folks by now are starting to get desensitized to Old Glory in that position of mourning?

The federal government only recognizes four annual occasions for the flag to fly at half staff:  Pearl Harbor Day (December 7 for you young'uns), Peace Officers Day (5/15), Memorial Day and most recently 9/11.  Of course special occasions do occur like the death of a former high ranking political figure, or to mourn mass murders like Virginia Tech and the most recent Colorado theatre shootings.

A timely example is President Obama noting the passing of astronaut Neil Armstrong with just such a well deserved honor this coming Friday.

On Monday night the Amherst Select Board mentioned a number of times as their predecessors have done over the past ten years, that the town does recognize and mourn 9/11 by flying the town flag (that does fly 24/7 all year) at half staff.

I particularly remember Selectman Robie Hubley (secretly married to SB chair Anne Awad at the time) seven years ago saying he brought the flag down to half staff in town center "with my own bare hands".  Of course once the photo op was finished Mr. Hubley forgot to return the next day to bring the flag back up to full staff and it stayed down for the next two or three days.

And my fear this year is that the Governor will have the flag down on 9/8, 9/9, 9/10 for state reasons, and by 9/11 it will be a little less noticeable. Combine that with the recent decision of the Select Board not to fly the 29 commemorative flags in town center on 9/11, and you are heading down a dangerous path:

 "Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it."