Posted on 06/22/2006 4:07:56 AM PDT by chambley1
When Trish Bailey's son returns to Manassas this weekend from Iraq, she wants to honor him. But she said she is being rebuffed by city officials.
Her 28-year-old son, Jason Nichols, is a 12-year veteran of the U.S. Army, and on Friday, he will be leaving Iraq, where he has been since January, to visit home.
When Bailey brings her son home from Dulles International Airport and they enter Manassas on Va. 28, she wants him to be greeted by yellow ribbons hanging from every pole and post she can find along the route.
"I think that every soldier that comes back deserves a hero's welcome," she said. "And I just wanted to put ribbons up so that he could see that his hometown is welcoming him home."
But when she talked with city manager Larry Hughes and police Chief John Skinner about allowing her to put up the ribbons, her plans were downsized.
"They said they had talked and that they were going to allow me 12 ribbons," she said.
Hughes said that having ribbons scattered all over poles along the highway could be distracting to drivers.
"We were trying to work with her on something that would achieve her objective and not create problems on what is really a major highway," he said.
Skinner said he suggested that she could put ribbons up at the signal poles of intersections along her route home.
But Hughes said she wouldn't accept a
compromise. "The chief attempted to work with her on some alternatives that would work," he said. "She didn't really seem to be interested too much."
The city also took issue with how long Bailey wanted the ribbons to stay up.
Skinner told her they should come down a few days after her son came home, but Bailey said that was too soon.
"I have no problem taking them down," she said, "but I didn't want to do it after he got home."
Hughes said that if the ribbons stay up too long, exposure to wind and rain will make them an eyesore for the city.
"She just absolutely would hear of no compromise or alternative to what she wanted to do," Hughes said.
Bailey did not make clear what she will do next, but Skinner said fines are possible if she does more with the ribbons than the city will allow.
Someone who doesn't have a child in the military can't know what it means to have them come home safe, Bailey said.
"I wish that everybody in Manassas would put out a yellow ribbon, not just for my son, but for everybody's son or daughter," she said.
Nichols will return to Iraq at the end of his two-week visit to Manassas, Bailey said.
I'm sensing you've never been to Manassas much less have any knowledge of the people here. Trust me, there would be no rainbow ribbons either.
Can a 28 year old be a 12 year veteran of the Army, or is this a misprint?
She should have just done it without talking to the city manager. Now that there is a problem, a bunch of folks should call Senator Colgan.
I was thinking the same thing. I know you can enlist at 17, but I thought they'd have sufficient background checks twelve years ago to prevent underage enlistments (as opposed to WWII and after).
ROTC?
Could be, I s'pose.
Time to gather the troops and head for Manassas,
one more time.
It is always easier to apologize after the fact then getting permission before. This sounds more like Massachusetts than Manassas.
What's that saying, It's sometimes better to seek forgiveness than it is approval?
Hmmm -- I don't see why every patriot near Manassas could not chaim their "right to display twelve (12) ribbons. It would not take a huge turnout to make a spectacular display...
If you went in on your 17th Birthday and you are almost 29, then yes.
That's exactly what should happen. I have a feeling the neighbors will be out in force.
Unfortunately Ms. Bailey has not learned what her son has learned, or soon will learn, in the military. To ask is to be denied.
It is often easier to apologize than to seek permission.
I like the way you think. I wish I lived close to Manassas. Yellow ribbon is cheap...
She gets her allowance of 12 ribbons, which means any and everyone who wants to put some up gets a dozen's allocation...Manassas should be swamped with them, just to piss off the bureacrats.
"I bet if they were rainbow ribbons to honors gay pride, they wouldn't be doing this. Why is it such a 'hardship' for these people to honor our heroes?"
Because they are leftist jackasses that wouldn't know real patriotism if it walked up and bit them square in the ass.
Hats off to this woman!......How about if a few more people show up with their own ribbons?
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