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Transcripts:

I spoke first right after this guy

John Nelms: I must say, I’m feeling intimidated. I have to echo… My name is John Nelms. I have to echo, I feel very intimidated here tonight and that is putting the meaning of this display into my impression. So I’m encouraging a very restrictive policy. Start with Memorial Day… Even to put them up in this manner on Memorial Day is a big change for the Town of Amherst. Ummm…and this town has prided itself on being a community that has voiced, well I won’t get into it. But I’m sorry, but I don’t know if you folks have been part of that tradition [laughing to himself]. So anyway, I would urge a very restrictive policy. And again, ummm, you know, I’m, I’m, I’m afraid of actually going back to the seat where I’m sitting.
Selectman: Lets continue on and remember lets not be personal with each other folks. Okay, who’s next.

RaceBannon: Please forgive me. My name is XXX XXXXXX. I’m a Connecticut resident. I drove two hours to be here today specifically because of the things I’ve heard of this issue. I’m extremely offended by the comments I just heard. That’s simply because I’m a patriotic American who favors flying the American flag that an individual who does not favor flying the American flag should feel intimidated simply because I wish to fly it.

This country was founded by people who wanted to overthrow the yoke of tyranny and this is the state it started in. The British marched on Concord in an effort to seize the weapons of the colonialists so that they could impose a tyrannical government even tighter than they already had. The colonialists fought back.

If I remember correctly, the mascot of the UMass team is the Minuteman. On the 25 cent piece known as the quarter, the back of the quarter has a picture of the minuteman. Those are symbols that we all learned from children. It was a symbol of bravery. It was a symbol of people that weren’t going to get stepped on. The other symbol that helps define this country, other than the acts of freedom done by Massachusetts citizens, is the American flag.

I’m a United States Marine Corps veteran. I served from 1977 to 1981. I was one of the Marines off Iran for the hostage rescue attempt. One of the most vivid memories I have of that time period is watching Iranian students burn the American flag and burn effigies of Jimmy Carter, who I believe is an honorable man. They were not burning the United Nations flag, they were not burning Ronald Reagan, they were not burning pictures of the White House. They burned the symbolisms of our country which was our President who was a crude stick figure often painted up in an American flag when he was burned, as a picture of Uncle Sam who we all know is dressed up like an American flag, and then they burned an American flag. If the symbol of the United States is not the American flag, I don’t know what is.

I’ve heard statements made earlier, I believe it was by… I’m sorry, I don’t know who it was. I’m not going to say who I think it was because I’m probably wrong. That the consistent flying of the flag could be worn out on people because you see it all the time. Well then why are you flying the UN flag? I do not believe that this can be disconnected right now. You fly the UN flag daily at the seat of your government of this town. This is an American city in an American state. And yet you fly the flag of an organization which is trying to brand this country as racist, while at the same time ignoring countries that are burning farmers out of their home because of their race, or that are enslaving people because of their race or their ethnicity. This same organization which you fly the organizational flag of outside this building, is ignoring their racial hate crimes and trying to brand us all as racists simply because we are united under this flag.

I’ve noticed that the majority of the veterans here are United States Marine Corps veterans. There isn’t a single Marine in here that can’t tell you about Mount Surabachi and the raising of the flag. Chester Nimitz said that the raising of that flag means a Marine Corps for another 10,000 years. It wasn’t the United Nations flag that rose. It was the United States flag. This flag raised on Iwo Jima was a symbol of America. This is the United States.

Now I’m not going to say that there can not be a display of flags that is tacky. Everyone know that and I’m going to be quite honest…I have not seen this display that we are even talking about. I only know of it on the internet, I’ve read articles about, and I’ve read statements by the people doing it. Maybe it is tacky, I haven’t seen it yet.

But in a town that flies a foreign organizational flag in front of their town hall and then complains about an American flag or a group of American flags being raised on your Main Street. I’m willing to bet that if you took that UN flag down and put an American flag up there, the people would not have felt they had to fly these on Main Street. They would have only asked for individual holidays. They would have only asked for Veteran’s Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, maybe V-J Day, maybe V-E Day, maybe groundhog day. But they wouldn’t have had to insist on it being over such a long period of time as they asked for because the people of Amherst would have known that the United States flag flies over their town hall. I’m very upset and I’m going to shut up now before I embarrass myself.