Massachusetts town officials defend decision not to fly U.S. flags on Sept. 11

FoxNews.com ^ | 8-31-2012 | FoxNews.com

[servo1969]

A Massachusetts resident is protesting his town's decision not to fly American flags from utility poles on Sept. 11 this year, part of a policy to recognize the anniversary of the terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people with the flags only every five years.

MassLive.com reports that the flags in Amherst were flown last year to mark the 10th anniversary of the attack and will be flown again in 2016.

The board had voted to fly small flags on the light posts downtown on only six holidays every year. Resident Larry Kelley thinks 9/11 should become the seventh.

Tony Maroulis, executive director of the Amherst Area Chamber of Commerce, supports Kelley's suggestion.

"I understand how polarizing the flag can be in this community. Some might look at the flags as a brazen symbol of might and oppression," Maroulis said. "Others look at it as a source of pride in who we are, and what we can be. Whatever the complicated or simplistic responses to the flags, flying them on 9/11 would allow us to reflect and meditate upon them."

[muir_redwoods]

"The board had voted to fly small flags on the light posts downtown on only six holidays every year."

The six are, Lenin's birthday, the anniversay of the publication of the communist manefesto, Che's death day, the Cloward Pivin colloquium, May Day and Fidel's birthday

[Madame Dufarge]

Having been born and raised in Massachusetts, I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The state's a minimum-security insane asylum where the inmates routinely vote against their best interests and can't for the life of them figure out why everything is turning into a huge turd all around them.

All this while smugly proclaiming their intellectual superiority to the pathetic rubes in the other 56 states.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

A leader of the Communist Party USA’s youth arm, believe it was Jason Rabinowitz, used to be the president of Un. Mass - Amherst’s student government. His father/uncle was a Czech agent/STB during the Cold War.

Looks like the marxist hate-America mentality is still alive and well in Amherst.

My patriotic tendency is to say to Amherst reds, “Fuck you”, but I won’t, out loud, in public.

Let them desecrate the memory of 9/11. It reveals their hate-America mentality and I hope that the good people of Amherst un-elect their red asses out of politics.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Madame Dufarge:

Are you sure Massachusetts isn’t a MAXIMUM SECURITY INSANE ASYLUM? THey have given us the most Soviet spies and traitors per capital than any other state (New York is close).

They don’t call Harvard/Cambridge area the “Red Triangle” for nothing.

[RaceBannon]

this all started SEPTEMBER of 2011

and the night before, they had their first town meeting, debating on whether the flag would be flown

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9e6c83338d.htm
Amherst Residents “Furious” Over US Flag

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/520588/posts
Amherst Residents “Furious” Over US Flag

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/607916/posts
AMHERST: AMERICAN FLAG SYMBOL OF TERROR: SOUND FILE!!!!

AMHERST: How Words Spoken on Sept. 10 Came Back to Haunt the Speaker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/537788/posts

[RaceBannon]

http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3b9e6c83338d.htm
Amherst Residents “Furious” Over US Flag

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/520588/posts
Amherst Residents “Furious” Over US Flag

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/607916/posts
AMHERST: AMERICAN FLAG SYMBOL OF TERROR: SOUND FILE!!!!

AMHERST: How Words Spoken on Sept. 10 Came Back to Haunt the Speaker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/537788/posts

[Madame Dufarge]

It's possible I mischaracterized it.

OK, I still have family there and I was cutting a little slack....

[Popman]

-——”I understand how polarizing the flag can be in this community...——

I don’t understand it at all....

As we used to say a long time ago...America love it or leave it....

I’m beginning to think we need to throw such people out...

[RaceBannon]

here is the actual Amherst town meeting where the UMASS prof said that the American flag is a symbol of terrorism, and she said it almost 12 hours to the minute before the planes hit the first tower

start at 43:40, listen to the first two guys form there, then skip to
1:10 and listen to the UMASS professor

all this was the night before 9/11

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sc3tCTT93MM

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

I hope they got their shots. Leftist rabies are deadly.

[xrmusn]

Would be a good time for the REAL AMERICANS in Amherst and surrounding areas to fly the car flags and flood the immediate area with them.

How can a town elect officials that have the gall to say the US Flag is polarizing.

IT SHOULD BE POLARIZING TO OUR ENEMIES.

Damn straight I want OUR ENEMIES to cringe when they see the FLag and be well aware of who is carrying it.

[SuperLuminal]

"Some might look at the flags as a brazen symbol of might and oppression,...."

That/those "Some" might need a severe readjustment. Ground temperature sounds about right...

[trebb]

That viewpoint is so alien to me my mind can barely process it. What the hell kind of places are there in America where this idea can take root? Especially concerning a terrorist attack by foreign agents resulting in the deaths of thousands of fellow American citizens? That, to my mind, is flat out akin to treason. I have lived in the Deep South all my life. Though I imagine it can be very beautiful I hope I never have to visit a city filled with such people.

'm with you. I grew up un Rochester, NY, but in the 50's those who harbored such attitudes would have been told they could find another community if they thought the flag was divisive. There is still some patriotism up there, but the leftists have pretty much worn folks out. I settled in S. MS in 1986 and it is refreshing to hear school techers talk up patriotism and God...

[4buttons]

“That viewpoint is so alien to me my mind can barely process it. What the hell kind of places are there in America where this idea can take root?”

-incestuous little academic latrines like Amherst. That sewer is like Brigadoon for armchair know-it-all Marxists.

[Lady Jag]

Come on! You know better than that!

First of all, Cambridge and its environs and Amherst are the two most ridiculous places in MA. Knowing Cambridge well I can assure you it has always been full of kooks, not all of them aware of politics or anything else for that matter.

MA is a blue state largely because of its cities but please don't declare the whole state bad. It used to be conservative before the Kennedys and some of your best conservatives are still here.

Give MA conservatives a break!