Posted on 04/05/2003 10:46:18 AM PST by UB355
When Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Doreen Weibel wanted to tie yellow ribbons to trees on city property as a patriotic gesture toward U.S. troops in Iraq, getting permission was a phone call away.
"I called up the mayor and he said, 'Go right ahead,' " Weibel said Friday.
In Muskego, the city itself hung yellow ribbons - donated by a local florist - under the American flags displayed on its main street.
And in Whitefish Bay, Police Chief Gary Mikulec has seen a number of yellow ribbons tied around trees in public parkways - and looked the other way.
"We understand the emotions tied to this conflict," Mikulec said. "We have no difficulty with the ribbons at present."
But the issue is more complicated in Cedarburg, where City Administrator Clint Gridley has banned ribbons - which were popularized two decades ago during the Iran hostage crisis and took hold during the Persian Gulf War - from city property.
If he were to allow the display, Gridley said Friday, what's to stop an anti-war group from hanging black ribbons on city trees or other public property?
"It's a question of equity," he said. "Would we give other groups who say they are just as deserving the ability to display their symbols on public property?
"So we have to separate how we feel about the troops and the war from the ribbon request," he said, adding that it's a tough decision for him "because I personally support the yellow ribbon campaign."
Gridley's decision didn't sit well with Noel Jepson of Cedarburg, who showed up at a Common Council meeting this week to urge aldermen to allow yellow ribbons to be displayed on street lamps in the downtown area and to be wrapped around trees in a city park.
"Who supports our troops?" Jepson asked an audience of about 30 people. "Stand up if you support our troops."
Nearly everyone did.
Jepson also invited aldermen to do the same, and all of them stood as well.
Aldermen took no action to overrule Gridley, but will apparently get another chance. When reporters started asking about the issue on Friday, Ald. Robert Loomis asked that the matter be placed on the agenda at the council's next meeting - on April 14.
It's an issue local officials are confronting nationwide.
Earlier this week, yellow ribbons were banned from public property in Fieldsboro, N.J., a decision that drew criticism nationwide when it was reported by news services and on network television.
A protest was scheduled for today against the policy. The town's sole police officer has called state police for help policing the expected crowds.
Fieldsboro Mayor Edward "Buddy" Tyler said the ban helps ensure that controversial symbols, such as Confederate or Nazi flags, didn't appear on public property in the town of 522 residents.
Thousand Oaks, Calif., resident Brenda Freeman last week tied yellow ribbons around a few hundred trees as a tribute to U.S. troops in Iraq.
In return, she got a few hundred feet of cut-up ribbon returned to her by the city's Public Works Department because she ran afoul of rules forbidding garage sale signs and advertisements on trees in the public right of way.
After angry residents jammed city hall phone lines and harangued their council members, Freeman received an apology from Mayor Andy Fox, who blamed the deribboning on bad judgment by an overzealous city employee.
Jan Effinger, a Mequon resident who sells real estate in Cedarburg, asked City Administrator Gridley about two weeks ago for permission to hang yellow ribbons on all trees along Washington St., the main street running through downtown Cedarburg.
Gridley said no, encouraging her to tell citizens through the news media to tie the ribbons on trees on private property.
"There are many more and visible trees on private property," he said. "They can do with their property as they choose."
Gridley said that when the war started, Cedarburg was one of the first communities in the area to put up American flags on Washington St.
The American flag "is a national symbol, and it has complete relevance and appropriateness," Gridley said. "The yellow ribbon is not a national symbol. But over the years, it has developed a sentimental meaning."
That sentiment may have other problems down the line.
Mikulec, the Whitefish Bay police chief, didn't rule out a change in his perception of the issue.
"Our problem may be later on when people take other positions on other topics and decide that they want to use the same tree for their message."
If this becomes a pronounced problem, he said, "we will look to the Village Board for some direction on this."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Many of the communities that frown on the "yellow ribbon" type activities, are also ones that will cite you if you have the wrong size mailbox, if you have a blade of crabgrass, or haven't painted your home the exact politically correct shade of "baby puke" beige! They're afraid of individuality because they will lose control or their Orwellian empires!
Expressions of individuality combined with distaste for those supporting the president must be sending these control freaks into withdrawal seizures...MORE YELLOW RIBBONS PLEASE!
Some of my best summer memories involved driving to Cedarburg for the day for swimming and ice cream. As I got older, we'd bicycle up stopping off at the Hobby House in Mequon and iced tea in Thiensville.
Screw the Stalinist facists that now occupy that town. I'll be looking for an address to send a check supporting a recall. dersepp in Santa Clara, CA
Not all is lost. Just some spineless politicians who are afraid of their own shadow. With all the snow that's here, maybe these wimps really did see their shadow, and continue to hide.
Mr. Gridley is an idiot. The yellow ribbons just happen to to be a symbol supporting those who are effecting the National will in a far away land. The other symbols are in support of those opposing that will. There's a choice to make, between supporting those that are fighting to achieve US goals and those that oppose them. A failure to allow placement of the yellow ribbons does not foster equity, it establishes a surrender to the goals of the black ribbon crowd mob.
The yellow ribbon is a symbol freely chosen by free people to show support for our armed forces. People have adopted and cherished and worn symbols since the dawn of time. Flags and medals are symbols. Chevrons are symbols. Green berets are symbols. The lady's scarf, carried into battle by a Mediaeval knight, was a symbol. There is nothing wrong with yellow ribbons in support of our military forces.
Now, why is it you say, "Flush the yellow"?
Mine's been flying since August 15, 1998 - the day I moved into this house. First thing I did, before ANY unpacking, was put up the bracket for the flag pole.
Long may she wave.
If he persists in his nonsense, I think Mr. Gridley might be well advised to worry more about the locals tar-and-feathering city administrators than hanging yellow ribbons.
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