When the U.S.S. Cole sank, Amherst High refused to fly its flag at half-mast to memorialize the soldiers that had lost their lives in the explosion.

In the fall of 1999, a high school performance of “West Side Story” was cancelled because members of the community thought it racist.

On September 5, twenty-nine American flags flying in downtown Amherst were taken down because certain townsfolk complained.

The Hampshire Gazette reported that Town Manager Barry Del Castilho received 30 complaints from townspeople who felt that the flags were okay once in awhile but there was no need to fly them over an “extended period.”

The town of Amherst, as I’ve learned in my three and a quarter years here, is totally f****d up. “Zagami, can’t you think of a more appropriate word? Do you have to resort to obscenity and truck driver speak?”

No, no I can’t, because that’s the best word to describe our little college town. Sometimes I’m really surprised that Amherst allows us to sing the National Anthem at sporting events or that it gives Veteran’s Day off to the schoolchildren.

In regard to what’s happened over the past month, I wonder if those who filed complaints about the flags have moved on to bitch about something else now. Probably not. I suppose if you live in the Twilight Zone, the way the locals do, you’re excused from unnecessary protest. Hey, you live in a five-college town. You’re among the “edumicated.” You’re enlightened to the ways of the world – you can quote Dickinson, you get your coffee from Starbucks and you have a right to complain about anything you want. But now it all seems a little inappropriate and kind of a waste of time, doesn’t it?

I’ve heard a lot of students complaining about the hyped-up patriotism, the “foolishness” of being too patriotic in a time when we need to be more sensitive toward our actions as a nation than ever before. I wonder if the citizens of other countries look down upon those who show pride in their country. I wonder if people are flying their flags now because it’s all they can do.

At the football game this weekend, I looked around and saw many members of the working class community of Amherst. They were proudly displaying “United We Stand” tee-shirts and wearing red, white and blue. Just common folk, out enjoying a game of football, trying to forget about the tragedy and enjoy a beautiful fall day. They might not have been the most educated or most enlightened representation of Amherst, South Hadley, or Belchertown, but they represent the largest part of our nation.

One of the flag protesters wrote that the extended display of flags diminishes the significance of important historical dates. Her letter (printed in the Hampshire Gazette) read, “Flags flying continuously can become humdrum, frivolous, ordinary, easily ignored as they merge into the background of posters, signs, advertisements, and detritus.”

Now, only someone from Amherst would use the word “detritus” in a complaint letter. I don’t even know what that word means, but I’m from Eastern Mass. Maybe she’s changed her mind since September 11. She probably hasn’t. How can a flag be easily ignored? Do flags flying constantly in large numbers cause them to be insignificant? Are we as a nation right now diminishing the meaning of the stars and stripes by overzealous display?

The man who bought the flags to fly downtown is a veteran. Two of his veteran buddies helped to put them up. To them the flag isn’t a symbol of sacrilege, but rather a memorial to their friends and to the time they served for their country. I think that the protests to the flags run a little deeper than the humdrumness and frivolity. What’s really eating them is that the flags represent those who held a gun for their country. I’m a student here and I’m well aware that our flag represents oppression, unfairness and Barnes and Noble chains. For the time being, I’d like to think of the flag as a symbol of awareness and as a comfort. I’m not going to wrap myself in it and run through the streets of Amherst – I’d probably be taken captive and pelted with locally grown produce. But I’m going to acknowledge what it symbolizes for the present moment, instead of its past implications.

We are an educated community. We read books, we sip lattes and are quick to judge the masses and think less of them. That should stop. In a community where equality is fought for all the time, we can be quite hypocritical when it comes to the views of the assumed Joe Six-Pack. Chances are, he’s the first one who would fight to protect your right to bitch.