If Only The Halliburton Weather Machine Really Existed…

(This is the UN flag, which until recently flew on public property in Amherst. The US flag? Not so much)

Then we could send Hurricane Earl straight to Amherst, MA. They deserve it.

AMHERST - The Select Board has rejected a request to fly the commemorative American flags yearly on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists attacks, and instead voted 3-2 to fly the flags every five years.

The Select Board decided in a 2008 compromise to fly the small American flags, attached to light posts and utility poles, every third anniversary. Resident Larry J. Kelley this week repeated his annual request for the anniversary to be marked every year with the flying of the commemorative flags.

At the meeting Thursday night, board member James J. Wald said in part he wanted to reconsider the earlier decision because President Barack Obama proclaimed the day “Patriot Day and National Day of Service and Remembrance,” and asked that people fly their flags at half staff and work in their communities.

“It was worth talking about,” Wald said. He supported Kelley’s request to fly the flags every year as did fellow board member Alisa V. Brewer.

Longtime Amherst watcher Larry Kelley thought that, this year, the Select Board would crack and common sense prevail. As he admits on his blog:

Okay, so I was wrong. Never bet on Amherst to do the right thing. Tonight the illustrious Select Board voted 3-2 against flying the American flags in the downtown this September 11. Mr Wald and Ms. Brewer voted in favor. O'Keeffe, Hayden and Stein voted no.

And in fact, they made the current once-every-three-year policy even more restrictive by voting to fly them only once every five years.