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Topic: Mayor & Council in NJ Bans Yellow Ribbons
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Kindgo
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Member # 2
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posted
Fury over UK flag flown at half-mast
www.manchesteronline.co.uk/today/
Manchester City Council is flying the "Union Jack" (British flag) at half-mast as a protest against the Iraq war. This has annoyed many ordinary Manchester people. One guy told the Manchester Evening News that he knows someone who has a son out in Iraq who was in "floods of tears" over this. I know the antiwar people have a right to their own opinion but, like it or not, the war is on now so why can't they just support the troops? It can't be doing much for the soldiers' morale when they hear about this sort of thing happening back home.
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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Kindgo
Advanced Member
Member # 2
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posted
This story is just unbelievable. The mayor and council are against the war in Iraq, and they actually voted to ban yellow ribbons on the town "welcome" sign (talk about get a life!)
http://www.trentonian.com/site/news...id=502176&rfi=6
KEEP IT TO YOURSELF
Deborah Cannonie
Staff Writer
March 28, 2003
FIELDSBORO -- Diane Johnson found out the hard way that yellow ribbons make Mayor Edward "Buddy" Tyler see red. The borough mayor supports the council’s unanimous vote to outlaw any ribbons or other memorials for the American troops fightingin Iraq, if those ribbons are placed on public property because the government doesn’t want them there.
"I’m shocked and outraged," Johnson said. "I can’t believe the mayor would force me to take down ribbons put there in honor of American troops, fighting for our freedom in Iraq."
Johnson and her husband David own Hegyi’s Liquor Store, the second prominent landmark on the way into tiny Fieldsboro from Route 130, with a population of 1,222. The first landmark is a huge sign directly in front of the liquor store that says "Entering the Boro of Fieldsboro, Incorporated 1865."
It was on the painted sign and on a fledgling tree that Johnson hung yellow ribbons "about the size of a dinner plate," she said. "They were made of all-weather ribbon, and they looked really nice. They didn’t obstruct the sign in any way, and a lot of people with family members in the war came into the store to tell me how seeing the ribbons gave them a lift."
But yesterday, several days after the ribbons were hung, Johnson got the word from the mayor via a township maintenance man: "Take down the ribbons, or I’ll do it for you."
"I didn’t want to get fined, so I took them down," Johnson said, visibly upset. "There are mothers in town who have sons over there. You think he’d be a little bit sensitive to them."
It wasn’t just the mayor’s edict: Four of the borough’s six council members took a vote on the matter. Tyler said that the council members, present at a budget meeting last week, voted unanimously to make Johnson take down the ribbons, or have the town do it if she refused.
"Yes, it’s true," said Tyler, who said he had received a complaint about the ribbons.
The mayor said he initially didn’t think the yellow ribbon controversy was "a big deal," but after some thought, he said he agreed with compelling Johnson to remove the ribbon memorial.
"Where would you draw a line if you started allowing the use of public property to exhibit whatever cause anyone wanted?" Tyler said. "Suppose someone wants to tie pink ribbons, or black flags, or a Confederate flag or a Nazi flag on public property?"
The issue, Tyler said, had nothing to do with support for the troops in Iraq. "We certainly recommend that people should exhibit their support," he said. "Just do it on your own property, not on borough property."
A decorated Vietnam veteran, Stan Stimpson, who has lived in Fieldsboro for 50 years, just shook his head.
"It’s unbelievable the mayor would do something like this. I have an American flag on my property, and I have a ribbon from Diane that I put on the top of the flagpole," Stimpson said. "Citizens should support our troops. They are fighting for us.
"I hope that’s one lesson we learned from Vietnam."
Things were different in the borough after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, David Johnson said.
"The whole town went flag-crazy then," he said. "My wife put red, white and blue flags out then."
But not on the town’s welcome sign.
Tyler emphasized how important the rule of law with the Iraq situation, and said he didn’t support the American attack against Saddam Hussein.
"We should have had the support of the United Nations. I’m not waving flags either way," he said. "I don’t support this war."
Tyler, a Democrat, has been a colorful, controversial mayor for four non-consecutive terms.
Partisan politics, though, had nothing to do with the governing body’s decision to get rid of the ribbons, Tyler insisted, although he noted that the Johnsons "are Republicans."
All six members of the borough council are solidly Democrat.
"The whole thing absolutely gets me in my gut," Diane Johnson said. "I still can’t believe the mayor would be against this, and that the council would actually vote to get rid of the ribbons.
"As far as I know, we’re not a Gestapo police state," she said, "but they’re sure acting like it."
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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