And quite frankly if I were in charge of that Parade I would have let the gays march—but only if they were Irish of course (thus staying within bounds of the “theme”) and unlike Iran the Irish do have gay folks--and hey, now they can even marry in California as well as Massachusetts, something I also support.

Actually the golf course has been losing tax money (and I have been pointing that out) for twenty-one years now. And although you have not been in Town Meeting that long Professor, a few have, and probably missed the irony that Vince is whining for more money for the Jones Library and nobody in town meeting is more responsible for the original Cherry Hill fiasco than he.

A golf course we could have had for free but ended up spending the most money in town history to take it by eminent domain, something our Conservation folks had in mind for the South East street property owned by Scott Nielson.

I remember in particular a 4th of July parade in Leicester, Mass. on the bicentennial (1976). I can see in my mind red-white-and-blue streamers in the spokes of bicycles and people sitting on folding chairs on their front lawns.

I love to imagine the 4th of July that way.

You can't even fix your potholes or plow your roads.

You are a silly town filled with silly people.

Did you know your town is laughed at all over Massacusetts?

From Kelly to O'Connor and all in between!

Having a 'Patriotic Parade' and another 'Protest Parade', each with equal access to town roads and the general public fits perfectly those parameters.
http://blog.masslive.com/kelsey/

How about a protest-free Independence Day Parade followed by a protest-rally or visa versa?

The Independence Day protest advocate groups - Amherst Democratic Town Committee, Amherst Republican Town Committee, the Green Party, the League of Women Voters and the anti-war group SAGE - could join together to organize, pull the permit and raise funds to finance it. That way we don’t have town government raising funds to finance a protest parade that citizens may or may not want their town government facilitating. Furthermore, the solution of having the aforementioned groups initiate their own solution, raise their own funds, accomplish their owns goal without terminating the seven-year tradition of a protest-free Independence Day Parade is process parallel to the Parade Committee’s work since 2002.

Best of all, the solution recognizes the protest advocates free speech right to protest and the Parade Committee's free speech right of association.

I planned to go the 7/4 parade meeting this evening at the VFW but got stunningly good news from the People's Republic of China about our new (2'nd) daughter.

Ya think Amherst can handle another Kelley?

I'll mention Mr. Weiss's proposal, or he can show up and present it himself.

With that in mind, I have the following request of the parade committee. You have submitted a permit request for a parade on July 4, 2009, and you are demanding that Larry Shaffer respond to that request immediately, in advance of any more negotiations or conversations. That will put the decision squarely back into Mr. Shaffer's ball park - permitting. Would you be willing to withdraw your application until the SB has taken the matter up in June; or at the very least, stop demanding an immediate reply? That will allow everyone a chance to breath, to listen, to think, to converse.

1. The only thing the SB has decided is to hold a longer conversation with the public after Town Meeting ends. And I believe that the entire SB agreed to do this. Despite what appears to be a Weiss/Shaffer decision for the Town to hold a parade, it was entirely a Shaffer decision. The SB has not voted on this matter.

It was not clear from the 4/28 SB meeting notes that the SB had a consensus regarding their role in the matter. It seemed that some but not all members wanted to evaluate. I applaud the SB’s decision to evaluate the policy and help identify a host of solutions so that the best solution can be made policy.

If it is true that the Town Manager reports directly to the SB Chair, then citizens will look to the SB Chair when they’re not satisfied with process, conclusions or policy authored by the Town Manager. Conflict arising from Town Manager’s execution of his job will rightly fall at the feet of the Chair. How much better would it be if the review occurred before the policy was announced?

But I have an even more fundamental problem with this arrangement. Elected town government officials as opposed to hired ones should be responsible for town policies that regulate citizens’ behavior and access to town resources.

Elected officials are our representatives. The Town Manager is not a representative; he is instead a manager and an employee. The process of election is the process by which we consent to be ruled. The Town Manager has not been elected and does not have our consent.

At some point, this issue of governance and the Town Manager’s authority to make town-wide policy as opposed to town government operations policy needs to be taken up by the SB. It is the fundamental reason for Amherst’s two recent least popular policy missteps.

"if there is no reconcilable agreement between the Parade Committee and Right To Protest group, why not accommodate both rather than just one or the other? …The day is long enough and our byways ample enough to accommodate the political needs of both parties." .

I've been thinking the exact same thing, and am glad to see that idea posted here.

That is excellent news because as Chair you may have more influence than just one vote in five.

3. Let's not forget that we got to this point because of an impasse. The path is not permanently closed; it is still under reconstruction. Dialogue can lead to a satisfactory resolution. I'm willing to wade through these postings to look for suggestions that lead to an unblocking of the path...

I applaud your conflict resolution attitude.

I think this impasse exists because Protest Advocates demanded participation the Parade Committee Parade and no other solutions were conceived. The argument about denial of free speech must have seemed so compelling that no one asked them to consider how else their needs could be met. The discussion that may not have ever occurred is the one that starts with the question: What forums on 7/4 would Protest Advocates find satisfactory, are they’re prepared to organize it, what resources they’ll will need from the town?

All negotiation up until this point has been Protest Advocates demands on the Parade Committee taken up by the Town Manager and made official policy - an official policy that recognized protest advocate “denial of free speech claim” but not Parade Committee “right of association” claim.

I’m on board. If I come up with any more ideas, I’ll post them here.