Gitmo Detainees, "Yes!" Flying US Flag To Remember 9/11? Not So Much... (Jihad In Amherst, MA)

oppose the vote by Amherst selectmen calling for two Gitmo detainees to be relocated in this Western Massachusetts town as a matter of principle:

And it would be a grotesque form of abuse to sentence anyone to life in this liberal loony bin. Even those suspected of al-Qaeda connections.

Would the two detainees in question, Ahmed Belbacha and Ravil Mingazov, pose a security risk if they were allowed to take up Amherst’s invitation? Nobody knows for sure.

But we do know that about 15 percent of those freed from Guantanamo have rejoined the jihad. Just last week former detainee Yousef al-Shihri was captured in a foiled suicide bombing attack in Saudi Arabia. He was freed in 2007 and went through a Saudi-run “terrorism rehab program.”

Anyway, the real question is this: Is it possible for Belbacha and Mingazov to be any more anti-American than the Amherst officials who invited them?

Because the biggest whackjobs in this drama aren’t behind the wire in Gitmo. They’re running around loose in Western Massachusetts.

The article passed the Amherst board on a 2-1 vote. The lone dissenter supported the sentiment but said the subject was “outside the expertise of Town Meeting.”

Selectman Diana Stein was uncertain about supporting the article, the Springfield Republican reported, until she realized her fear of the detainees had been “propagandized” into her. The other “yes” vote, Gerald Weiss, had no such qualms, saying the detainees were “suffering because of the U.S. government.”

Music to the ears of Ruth F. Hooke, who wrote the article and says the detainees “sound like fine guys. They’d fit right in Amherst.”

TRANSCRIPT OF AMHERST FFDLAG MEETING(SELECTED)

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 Jim Bancroft. 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.

30 posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2002 1:22:16 AM by AStack75
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To: cdwright
Jennie Traschen: A gentleman a couple speakers ago expressed some really lovely sentiments that the idea that the flag stands for the huge collection of people that live in this country. And I thought that was a really nice image and I wish it was true. But I’d like to argue briefly, because it’s late, that actually what the flag stands for is it’s a symbol of terrorism and death and fear and destruction and repression. And so I am requesting that you take down, keep down the new flags. So let me explain.
[Voices in the background]

Selectman: Folks, we tolerate opinions here. Please…

Jennie Traschen: So my dad was a World War II veteran. So I guess that makes me part of a family of veterans. And my mom was one of those women that waited at home for the letters and I’m sure had a very hard time when my father was missing in action for many months. But, luckily for me anyways, they lived to bring up a family of delightful children.

One of my earliest memories is standing outside the GE plant in Schenectady Upstate New York on a picket line with my parents because GE was contributing to the war effort that was funneling over into Vietnam. And as I grew up, I watched my parents first draft counseling young men who were being drafted, standing on vigil lines, organizing rallies, working for the nuclear freeze, working to stop the destruction in Central America.

And as I think back about my education, when I left the household, and wasn’t in so direct contact with my parents. In fact, that’s one of the reason why I dragged myself down tonight because I knew that both of then would be here and that I at least had to be as unlazy as my folks were. My education has been punctuated by U.S. invasion. Okay. After Vietnam, you know it’s El Salvador, it’s Nicaragua, it was Panama, it was the Middle East. The people living in Gaza and the West Bank who only had the misfortune to have their homes…live in their homes at the wrong time. Just like the people that lived in this country, in this land before the European Colonists came and one of the first historical acts that was done in the name of the flag was to kill those people to steal their land. And that’s why that flag flies from shore to shining…or sea to shining sea I think the phrase is. It’s not something to be proud of.

Selectman: I understand, I think we understand your point of view.

Jennie Traschen: I want to make one more, one more comment. That, I can also understand as we’ve heard tonight that the flag represents different things to different people. And people have written in and said that the flag stands for freedom and justice. If that’s what you think it stands for or should stand for, go to your legislators and ask them to fund education for G.I.s, ask them to fund education so that everyone can get a higher education in the Commonwealth. Ask them to fund health care because that’s part of freedom and justice. So if you think that that’s important I really encourage people to get out in the streets, and take your pen in your hands and do something to create the reality of freedom and justice because that’s not what the history of our flag has represented.

Selectman: Thank you Jen. [Spattering of applause] Okay, who’s next?

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