Posted on 03/29/2003 1:29:20 AM PST by Doctor Raoul
TOWN WITHOUT PITY
PAUL MICKLE, Staff Writer & CHARLES WEBSTER
March 29, 2003
FIELDSBORO -- This tiny town squirmed in the national spotlight yesterday as Americans reacted mostly with anger to Mayor Ed "Buddy" Tyler’s ban on yellow ribbons.
Cued by the front page of yesterday’s The Trentonian, television news crews from across the region descended on Fieldsboro soon after daybreak with questions about the ban and its impact on the morale of American troops.
By 8 a.m., the story of Fieldsboro banning yellow ribbons on public property was going statewide to an estimated one million listeners on talk radio.
By 10 a.m., a medical equipment consultant from Maryland was in town wearing a Saddam Hussein mask and carrying a placard calling Tyler "My Buddy."
By noon, Tyler was on Philadelphia television saying Fieldsboro would have to let groups like the Ku Klux Klan post slogans on public property if the yellow ribbons were permitted.
By 1 p.m. the story was going worldwide on the Internet via the daily Drudge Report, which posted The Trentonian front page and recorded 9 million viewers the previous day.
That opened the floodgates and calls started pouring into The Trentonian, and at Hegyi’s liquor store where Dave and Diane Johnson fielded calls all day long from supporters across the country, and radio stations looking to report the shock news from tiny Fieldsboro.
"All of this is incredible," said Diane Johnson, obviously shaken by the attention and support she was getting. It was Diane, and her husband Dave Johnson, who were told by the mayor to remove the yellow ribbons she had placed on the township sign that welcomed visitors off of Route 130.
"People are calling from everywhere," Dave Johnson said. "People want to come here and march."
By 3 p.m., the New York National Guard unit on security duty in New York City was calling The Trentonian to find out where to send the letter of protest.
At the same time, Fieldsboro councilman Mike Carroll said the answering machine at his home had taken in "150 calls from the whole country and they’re all saying, ‘You’re no good!’"
"Well, I was absent the night of the vote and I wouldn’t have voted for it anyway," said Carroll. "I support the troops. I’ve had an American flag on my door since Sept. 11."
Despite the ban, Fieldsboro appeared to be the yellow ribbon capital of the world by late afternoon.
Diane Johnson, who alerted the press after local officials ordered her to remove yellow ribbons from outside her liquor store, filled four tables with the ribbons and handed them out to local children yesterday.
Piggybacking off The Trentonian story, Radio station 101.5 FM appeared in town with its big yellow van, handing out ribbons.
And in nearby Allentown, a farmer was so upset about the Fieldsboro decision that he painted a giant yellow ribbon on the side of his barn.
Meanwhile, a local woman with a friend fighting in Iraq circulated a petition calling for the resignation of Tyler, who has had a 30-year history of creating political flaps in Fieldsboro.
In addition the call from PFC Michael Sahno of New York’s 105th Infantry Battalion, complaints were phoned in to The Trentonian from as far away as California and Florida.
"I am so incredibly angry with the mayor and that Fieldsboro government that I’m glad I live as far away from them as I do," said one Florida woman.
Mike Nassif called from Portland, Ore., to complain: "If I was there I would hang the ribbons and pay the fine proudly. I would keep hanging them and paying the fine."
The consultant from Maryland, Raoul Deming, 44, said he was in Burlington Township yesterday morning when he saw The Trentonian and immediately decided to head up Route 130 to protest.
Deming said he recently purchased some Saddam masks to give out as gag gifts and had one in the trunk of his car. He put it on as he posed for the media giving Tyler the thumbs up.
Earlier in the day, Nikki Comiso, a lifelong friend of 22-year-old Joshua Carr -- a U.S. Marine from Fieldsboro currently serving with the armed forces in Iraq -- took to the streets with a petition demanding the mayor and town council permit the yellow ribbons be placed on the town hall and welcoming signs.
"These public buildings belong to the public," Camiso said. "Buddy did a really stupid thing. This is very demoralizing for the troops and the people in town."
In the sleepy town of just over 500 people, Camiso was able to collect 100 signatures by noon, and more than 200 townsfolk signed her petition before she left for her job in Princeton later in the afternoon.
"Yellow ribbons are not a sign of political propaganda," Camiso explained. "I don’t understand how it can be OK to but a Christmas display outside town hall, but its not OK for us to show some support for our troops with some yellow ribbons."
Looks like Takoma Park's favorite son is at it again.
;-)
A resident noted to the media that Buddy's campaign posters are put up on public property.
Buddy admits he's anti-war and cites that we didn't follow "the rule of law" by not getting UN Permission to invade Iraq. So this is the lesson Buddy wants to teach Fieldsboro.
LOL! We love ya.
One of the four POWs in Iraq was from Pennsauken, about 30 minutes south of Fieldsboro on that highway, Route 130. He's likely one of the four Army bodies discovered by the US Marines according to news reports. His sister just died. But at least he lived in a community that elected a decent man as mayor, Mayor Bill Orth.
Orth had township workers put up yellow ribbons on Main Street to show support for their POW and his family.
Anyone wanting to call Mayor Orth's office and say "Thanks" can do so at 856-665-1000 ext 152. Hold on, a machine will pick up.
This story ruined my breakfast. I was SO pissed when I read the paper, I almost paid for my just ordered and yet undelivered meal so I could head straight for Fieldsboro. Unfortunately, I had to wait for someone to finish an assignment before I could strike out for the right bank of the Delaware river.
The NYC media beat the Philly media to Fieldsboro. As Philly showed up, NYC was leaving.
I know if I were placing Yellow Ribbons on MY private property to honor the troops and some city burearat in the city where I live ordered me to take them down, I'd say right to his/her face, "F*** YOU!!!!!" You're not going to tell me what I will or cannot do on MY own private property.
Here in this country, my individual rights to honor thr troops and do as I damn well please on MY own private property take precedence over the collective rights of others to not be offended or made unconfortable by what I do. Individual rights takes precedence over collective rights. This is how the founding fathers intended for this country to be goverened and anybody that says otherwise is a bald faced pathological liar.
Regards.
What a beautiful thing to wake up to in the morning. Salute.
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