Crystal Wright reports here at www.mediaite.com:
Veterans, on the other hand, are planning a protest, Rachel Fazio reports here at www.wwlp.com:
With some reports of burning flags, how far did Hampshire College go in abusing the American Flag? Snopes.com says while an American flag was indeed removed from campus, some reports about the incident were misleading:
Excerpts from Snopes report:
Didn’t Michelle Obama speechify to liberals during her hopeless crusade to elect Hillary Clinton that “when they go low, we go high?”
Some liberal nut jobs decided to ditch Michelle’s credo and dive to new lows in expressing their unhinged hatred for President-elect Donald J. Trump (and not to mention, for America).
It’s not enough for students at overpriced, liberal colleges like Brown University to stomp on flags during a Veterans Day event, or spoiled brats at American University to burn flags and shout “Fuck, white people.” Oh no…
Liberal administrators at Hampshire College in the blue-est of blue states, Massachusetts, have stopped flying the American flag because they decided it’s racist now that Trump was elected president by the people, per the Constitution and the law. Yep, the American flag—not the Confederate flag—is now a symbol of hatred.
Veterans, on the other hand, are planning a protest, Rachel Fazio reports here at www.wwlp.com:
In response, local veterans plan to line the streets on Sunday outside Hampshire College holding hundreds of U.S. flags. Veterans of Foreign war post 754 will meet outside the colleges west street entrance at 1pm for a peaceful demonstration of freedom.
Springfield Mayor Sarno will be standing in solidarity with local veterans at Hampshire College Sunday to protest the schools decision not to fly the American flag.
With some reports of burning flags, how far did Hampshire College go in abusing the American Flag? Snopes.com says while an American flag was indeed removed from campus, some reports about the incident were misleading:
Excerpts from Snopes report:
WHAT'S TRUE: Hampshire College removed the American flag from the campus' main flagpole.
WHAT'S FALSE: The college did not instate a campus-wide ban on American flags; The campus did not announce that the flag was a symbol of oppression; The flag was not removed in protest of Donald Trump.
ORIGIN:On 18 November 2016, Hampshire College decided not to fly an American flag from its main flagpole on campus, a decision that (predictably) sparked outrage in some circles and led to exaggerated reports about the incident.
For instance, PopularMilitary.com published an article reporting that the flag had been removed to appease students, who called it a "symbol of racism and hatred." Other sites claimed, incorrectly, that the flag had been outright banned from campus.
The drama around the presence of the American flag on Hampshire College started shortly after Donald Trump was elected president on 8 November 2016, when a group of people at the university lowered the flag to half-staff. College secretary Beth Ward wrote in an e-mail that the college decided to leave the flag at half-staff out of respect for those who were upset or grieving (and the school says it has had a long standing policyto periodically lower the flag to half staff to honor those who have died by violence around the world) but that they planned to raise the flag again the following Friday, for Veterans Day.
Before the flag was raised again, however, someone took the flag down and burned it:
We intended to raise the flag again this morning, on Veteran's Day, also out of respect. Hampshire is home to a multiplicity of perspectives and life experiences, and among us are both students and employees who have served (and currently serve) in the military. However, this morning we discovered that the flag was burned overnight and, as a result, veterans and others in out community will come to campus to find the flagpole empty. We are deeply saddened that the flag is absent and the reason for its absence.
A short time after the flag burning incident, the college decided to briefly stop flying the American flag on campus while they discussed what to do about it.
