"Damnit! I'm sick of seeing threads like this.
All it's doing is making me angrier and angrier."
Posted on 10/19/2001 8:10:11 AM PDT by jbstrick
Campus protesters ignite U.S. flags
Friday, October 19, 2001
By PATRICK JOHNSON
AMHERST — Amherst College students were stunned moments after a pro-America rally involving more than 100 people ended yesterday when several protesters emerged from the crowd to set fire to a U.S. flag.
As the sounds of "God Bless America" continued through the public address system in front of the Keefe Campus Center, as many as 10 demonstrators doused two flags with lighter fluid and set them on fire.
Five members of the group then spread a larger flag on the ground and stood on it while chanting "This flag doesn't represent me; this flag doesn't represent us."
The crowd of more than 100 people, mostly Amherst College students who moments before rallied around the flag, stood in stunned silence as the same flag was desecrated.
"This is really upsetting to me," said Christopher Palacios, a sophomore from Miami.
Palacios, who said his parents fled Cuba in the 1960s to escape Fidel Castro, said, "It makes me sick when American kids say the American flag scares them."
The pro-America rally yesterday was organized by a new student group called Amherst Assembly for Patriotism.
The group formed in response to peace rallies at each of the Five Colleges in recent weeks as well as the controversial decision by the town of Amherst to limit flag displays downtown.
"Amherst is 25 square miles surrounded by reality," said Theodore Hertzberg, a sophomore from Long Island. "I'm relieved the rest of the country does not feel the same way."
The crowd had just finished a group recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and was beginning to disperse when as many as 10 protesters came forward.
Most of those protesting the flag declined to be interviewed.
One who did, 19-year-old Dan Griffin of Minneapolis, Minn., said the protest sought to show that the United States is responsible for much of the pain and suffering in the world.
The United States has helped continue a spree of genocide that dates back to Columbus in 1492, he said.
"How people take it is how they take it," he said.
Griffin identified himself as a student but declined to say at which college. He said the others are from different area colleges but would not say which.
Hampshire College officials confirmed a student named Dan Griffin is registered.
The University of Massachusetts records show a Daniel Griffin was enrolled but he withdrew at the start of the semester.
Michael Flood, co-founder of the Amherst Assembly for Patriotism, said he found the actions of the protesters to be inappropriate, especially since he suspects none of them are from Amherst College.
"I believe they have a right to burn the flag, but this is inappropriate," he said.
Sophomore Nick Echelbarger from Seattle said the burning was free speech of the lowest form.
"It doesn't make a point. It's just poor taste," he said.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who caught that.....history doesn't seem to be that guy's strong suit.
Dear God, they're lucky newly-elected congressman Stephen Lynch (D-MA) wasn't within striking distance. For those outside the Commonwealth, in '79, during the Iran thing, Lynch beat the crap out of some anti-US protestors. The Globe tried to give him the business for it during this recent election, but alas for the Boring Broadsheet, it only made the electorate like Lynch more. He won the election to succeed the late Joe Moakley by over 30%.
That thought occurred to me too. You may be right.
"Damnit! I'm sick of seeing threads like this.
All it's doing is making me angrier and angrier."
think the little creep's mama and daddy are aware of this story ??
J
One libertarian's view: These idiots have every right to express themselves, including buring the flag.However, those who hold views contrary to the idiots also have every right to express themselves, including preventing them from buring the flag.
If I, a libertarian, were present at a demonstration in which someone attempted to burn the U.S. flag, I would use excessive force to stop it and suffer, if necessary, the physical or legal consequences of beating the skulls of fools into gravy smears on the pavement.
The flag represents to me all that is GOOD about our country, but the people that pervert that good, global elite purusing, and pursuing recklessly, I might add, their agenda, at the expense of our happiness, prosperity, lives, and freedom, they fly a the banner of hell.
The banner from hell flies over this country, and the stars and stripes, and all the good it represents, is a dated anachronism that has no connection at all with present reality.
I say keep waving the flag anyway, because somehow, the blind, ignorant masses might stumble across a path to victory over those that conspire daily to destroy the good and advance the evil. The 9/11/01 disaster is just another sorry chapter. Maybe one of these days the crowd will wake up and see who the enemy is. We can wave our flags all we want, and if that is all we can think of, then I guess that is better than nothing.
However, I tend to think it'll take a lot more than just falg waving. The people in this country must target ALL the enemies of america, including the few middle eastern perps who had some connection to the latest disaster, and who might have a connection to a future one as well. But the larger group of people I am talking about do not wear turbans, they wear suits. This is the point America is missing badly in all of this. And unless this enemy is dealt with, the few people we manage to kill in Afghansitan will be, for the truly patriotic amongst us, nothing more than a hollow victory.
The US govt might be able to install a more US friendly govt in Afghanistan so oil companies can get their pipeline, and natural gas, the central bankers might be able to take advantage of this cover of darkness to crash the money supply so they can reinflate at a later time without risking a politial backlash that would ordinarily put them out of business in this country, the global visionaries might be able to take advantagd of this by strengthening the movement towards the 'need' for countries to give up national agendas in order to pursue world '' peace' by increasing political globalization, leading to a political global government, the national authorities might be able to take advantage of this incident and destroy the bill of rights, giving the govt the kind of power they have always dreamed of, but were prevented from having because of that stinky old constitution, even the homosexual movement in this country tok a major leap forward as Gray Davis signed into law AB 25, all but making homosexual unions the same as a Biblically sanctioned marriage, but I have to ask, what do you and I get out of this deal?
Nothing, except dead relatives in the WTC, of Pittsburg, or at the Pentagon, or Afghanistan, etc. Our assets are being compromised by central bank selling pressure, our constitutional freedoms have been compromised. Our airports look like war zones (oh yeah, that is really going to encourage people to fly -- NOT). In short, the vision that the founder of FR has was far out of reach before 9/11/01, and now after 9/11/01 it has moved light years further away.
I still say there is hope, though, if Americans will focus on the greater enemies of America, and not just a few spooks in turbans. The spooks in turbans is a sideshow. The main event has been percolating for decades prior to 9/11/01, and the suits are still there, taking advantage of 9/11/01, making things even worse.
What these flag burning kids miss is the truth about what it is that bothers them. Instead of burning the flag, they should set fire to the global/ruling elite, and the banner of hell they have waved over our nation for too many years, and they should wage a war with any force that is progressively destroying the fruit of the revolution of 1776. Odds are they are too dumb, and too selfish to do so, and I bet most of them will simply end up being an integral part of the beast, once they get a taste of power.
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