How Words Spoken on Sept. 10 Came Back to Haunt the Speaker

How Words Spoken on Sept. 10
Came Back to Haunt the Speaker
By JERRY GUIDERA and ROBERT TOMSHO
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

AMHERST, Mass. -- The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 have transformed Jennie Traschen, a University of Massachusetts physics professor, into a target of harassment and hate.

Critics have publicized her home and e-mail addresses on the Internet, leading to a flood of nasty calls and computer messages. On her answering machine, strangers have made crude sexual remarks and denounced her as a traitor.

"This nation has been spit on by the likes of this trash," said an anonymous visitor to an Internet chat site. Another wrote: "These Marxist traitors should be hanged with piano wire and left to rot in the sun."

Unlike the backlash against Muslims and Arab-Americans, however, the attacks on Ms. Traschen have nothing to do with her ethnicity or religion. They were sparked by what the diminutive 45-year-old said about the American flag the night before four hijacked planes killed thousands and unleashed a maelstrom of emotion involving patriotism, security and fear.

People in this college town are used to speaking their minds. On the evening of Sept. 10, several dozen of them turned out to do just that at a meeting of the five-member select board that governs Amherst. The meeting had been called to settle a dispute over how often to fly 29 American flags that a group of veterans and volunteers had hung from lamp posts along the town's main thoroughfares.

Roderick Raubeson, a 59-year-old former Marine who heads the town's Veterans' Services office and the local chapter of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, had long been troubled that Amherst, known for its liberal political bent, had never adequately honored its military veterans. And so, in early August, he used $1,000 from the Veterans' Services budget for commemorative activities to buy the flags that he and others then raised downtown.

The flags raised a stir in this town of 36,000 people. Some residents wrote letters to local officials opposing the display altogether. Others said that flying so many flags every day made them just part of the scenery and eroded their meaning. But many local veterans lobbied for the flags to be flown for months at a time.

With several flags already flying daily at government offices, many town officials thought that any additional display should be confined to commemorative holidays, such as Flag Day and the Fourth of July. The issue grew more heated after Labor Day, when the flags were taken down pending a public debate and a decision by the select board at its Sept. 10 meeting.

Ms. Traschen didn't think twice about going to the town hall to make her opinions known. As a little girl, she had attended antiwar protests with her late father, a World War II veteran who often told her that free speech was among the rights the flag stood for. As an adult, she has frequently spoken out against U.S. policies ranging from the deportation of Central American refugees to Washington's support for the now-fallen apartheid regime in South Africa.

At the meeting, which was taped by a public-access cable-TV channel, Ms. Traschen urged people to lobby for more spending on education and health care for veterans rather than on hanging out more flags. Nervously tapping her open hand on the table in front of her, she also said that the flag had not always represented policies to be proud of. But it was one blunt comment that would be reported by local media and repeated again and again on the Internet.

"What the flag is," she said on the eve of disaster, "is a symbol of terrorism and death and fear and destruction and oppression."

In hindsight, Ms. Traschen wishes she had explained her thoughts differently. But then, in a town nestled in a peaceful valley in western Massachusetts, she had never had to choose her words with painstaking care. "There's been a level of repercussion that was totally unanticipated," she says.

Tuesday morning, Sept. 11, the country awoke to the horror unfolding in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. The calls to Ms. Traschen's home began Wednesday morning. In the first, it took 20 minutes to calm down an irate man from Seattle, who then warned her that her home address and phone number were already circulating on the Web. Another caller asked to speak to the "terrorist sympathizer." One suggested that she move to Afghanistan.

For a time, Ms. Traschen and her husband, also a physics professor, tried to discuss the issue with callers. When the attacks grew more vicious, however, they contacted local police, who mounted additional patrols past their home and put an electronic "tag" on their telephone so that operators would know that any call from the residence should immediately be treated as an emergency.

For a time, additional police officers were also stationed outside town hall, where officials fielded dozens of angry calls and e-mails from around the nation. Some senders had heard rumors that Amherst had ordered the flags taken down after the terrorist attacks; others were convinced that the town had banned private citizens from flying the flag at home. "We had all kinds of messages," says Town Manager Barry Del Castelho. "It was mostly people telling us to leave town or leave the country."

What had happened at the Sept. 10 meeting was that the town's select board voted 4-1 to fly the 29 flags only on six specified holidays. In the wake of the terrorist attacks the following morning, however, a group of men in a pickup truck went to the town offices on their own, retrieved the flags and returned them to their downtown sites. Since then, a local pub owner has vowed to raise money to buy even more flags for the main thoroughfares.

Mr. Raubeson, the man who started the flag displays, condemns the threats that Ms. Traschen has received. He also defends her right to free expression -- with one caveat: "When you speak your mind like that, there are consequences."

In light of the terrorist attacks, the select board hasn't determined if it will remove the 29 flags. If there is another public debate, Ms. Traschen doesn't know if she will be there.

Not that the events of Sept. 11 have altered her opinions. "To many, many ordinary people in countries around the globe, the U.S. has done terrifying things," she says. "If I think about the flag, I have to think about it from the point of view of those people."

But in Amherst, as in other towns and cities, some things have most assuredly changed since the terrorist attacks. Ms. Traschen no longer tries to discuss the flag with anonymous callers. And unsettled by the sound of her own ringing phone, she frequently leaves home to study or write.

Though fearful about future turmoil for the three-year-old child that she and her husband are in the final stages of adopting, she did write a letter to the local newspaper explaining her views. After receiving what she called "a spate of e-mails that were especially violent and several were obscene," she wanted to vent a little and talk to the locals.

"It was a good thing to do," Ms. Traschen says, noting that at the farmers' market, a lot of people came up to her and said they understood. But she remains upset by the episode and its implications.

"People are going to have a much harder time speaking their minds in this community," she says.

"People are going to have a much harder time speaking their minds in this community," she says.

It would be tough to get a sellout crowd for anti-American sentimental musings in circumstances such as we find ourselves. Sheesh, lady (not you, mombonn) Buy a clue: do you enjoy your freedoms, the right to trash your country and all who paid for your freedom with their blood? Maybe then, if you do, you should rethink your stance. It's about as stable as an earthquake.

Not that the events of Sept. 11 have altered her opinions. "To many, many ordinary people in countries around the globe, the U.S. has done terrifying things," she says. "If I think about the flag, I have to think about it from the point of view of those people."

Ever notice how people who make these statements can never come up with any but the barest of examples - taken out of context. Sounds like a just reaction to an unjust accusation against the flag to me. Free speech does not mean complete freedom to be licentious and libelous.

I also disagree about saying everyone in Massachusetts is liberal. I had responded to this orignal reply with:

regularAmericanWhiteMale

Is there anybody in Massachusetts who is not a communist or a traitor or a fag? What a hell-hole!

topher replied with

They have a Republican governor (who gave birth while she was in office). Of course, this governor is a pain to folks like Sen Ted Kennedy. It is just not wise to make generalizations, though I believe the state legislature is quite liberal. And let us not forget that Congressman Barney Frank is from Massachusetts.

My email to her:

Mrs. Traschen,

Sure, the USA has made mistakes, but what country has not?

And I suppose that you have never made any mistakes?

BTW, Mrs. Traschen, you are married aren't you?

And Mrs. Traschen, have you in any way noticed the initials and writing on the bags of rice/wheat, etc. sent to the Pakistani and even Afghanistan refugees?

Wouldn't it be better at this time to concentrate on what the USA is doing right?

Including going after the ring of terrorists who planned and perpetrated the attacks on the USA on 9-11-01?

BTW, Mrs. Trashcen, it is OK for you to admit you made a mistake in speaking out about not displaying the flags!

How dare you not let those veterans voice their right to free speech and demonstration by displaying this support of our country/flying the flag?

Yes, you can disagree with them, but after all, aren't you a citizen of the United States, enjoying the protection of the police and fire departments and services of the City of Amherst as you read this note?

Maybe you should re-think your statement and "Stand Up for America!"

Salvation
Salem, OR

As a little girl, she had attended antiwar protests with her late father, a World War II veteran who often told her that free speech was among the rights the flag stood for.

She SAYS that he was a vet and that he took to to protests. Maybe he was a vet, or maybe he wasn't. Maybe he took her to protests or maybe he didn't.

Maybe she's a lying witch to push her liberal agenda.

"free expression" ?????

I'll give her that one....as this is still a (sort of) free Country.

I can even stand for those idiots that decide to burn Old Glory...just as long as they're dipped in Tar, then wrap the flag around 'em...and Light 'em up!!!!

This waste of skin and air should never be allowed to see the light of day - - what with as many Vets as she's dumped on!

Those that gave some should haunt her until her last breath...

Those that gave all should take up from that point....

An article was written shortly after Ms. Traschen displayed her inability to keep her mouth shut.

Ms. Traschen then wrote an artilcle claiming she was misquoted and take out of context.

Then the tape surfaced showing Ms. Traschen was lying through her teeth - a typical spineless liberal.

I suggest frequent e-mails and calls to dUMass Amherst to create enough trouble to get this lying Commie fired

Yes there are plenty of us who do not fit your description. A good many Freepers as a matter of fact. Don't paint everyone with such a broad brush; save it for the folks who deserve it!

I know what you're saying. On the other hand . . . .

I have relatives who live in Mass. Nicest, warmest people you'd ever meet. Very big on family values and personal responsibility. But when it comes to politics, they'll vote for a Stalinist pervert without a blink.

The meeting had been called to settle a dispute over how often to fly 29 American flags that a group of veterans and volunteers had hung from lamp posts along the town's main thoroughfares... many local veterans lobbied for the flags to be flown for months at a time...
With several flags already flying daily at government offices, many town officials thought that any additional display should be confined to commemorative holidays, such as Flag Day and the Fourth of July.

I agree Mrs. Traschen's remarks were rather uncalled for, and quite frankly off-topic... but it does sound like these veterans, with all due respect, are a little off their rockers... This kind of garish overkill certainly does diminish the respect and solemnity due our nation's flag.

I also think that the sick individuals hounding her are psychopaths: there's a huge difference between criminal harrassment and exercising one's constitutional right to free speech.

This article is proof that the WSJ is no more a conservative publication than any other national fishwrap. Notice how miss professor is allowed to present herself as a martyr threatned by all those right-wingnuts out there for her "freedom of speech." The Journal's editorial page leans right, but the other 95% is SOP liberals talking to themselves.

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