Veterans to protest at college that stopped flying US flags

Lash said the Amherst campus will talk with students and staff about properly utilizing flags in the future.

Instead of flying the flag proudly for a nation that just celebrated a fair and democratic election, they fly it at half-mast to stand with those fearing the president elect.

On Sunday, veterans and their supporters converged en masse at the Amherst-based school to show their displeasure with Lash’s decision. The flag also was burned by an unknown person the night before Veterans Day.

Rather than “go high” with the flag, administrators chose “to go low”, leaving it at half-staff for those who were grieving over Trump’s victory. “They’ve fought for this symbol”, Brian Martin, who represents the Massachusetts Veterans of Foreign Wars, said during Sunday’s protest.

The station reported last week that debates over flag flying have occurred on campus before.

If refusing to fly the flag after Trump’s election isn’t racist, what is it?

Velis says academia needs to take a step back.

On Facebook, an event has been created to rally behind the flag and show respect to United States soldiers and veterans.

Courtmanche said the flag burning incident is still being investigated.

“It’s not about who won the election”, Leo Deschenes, who served in the Coast Guard for 16 years, told MassLive during the protest. As a group of veterans were posing for a photograph, one man kept inserting himself in front of them and making obscene gestures to the camera.

What are the laws behind flags?

Lash said the flag’s removal was not intended as a sign of disrespect, but to accommodate the diverse range of reactions to the symbol.

One student explained it like this.

Hampshire College’s flying the U.S. flag half-staff was meant to “create the space for meaningful and respectful dialogue across the many perspectives represented in our community”, says Lash.

Notably, Hampshire, under pressure from students, was the first college divest its holdings from, companies with interests in apartheid-era South Africa.

Meanwhile, student leaders at Loyola University in Maryland apologized for the theme – “Party in the U.S.”.

A group of people, meanwhile, has filed a petition on WhiteHouse.gov asking that federal funding for the college be frozen until the college again flies the flag.

The following month, the college’s commencement was marked by tension over student concerns over campus spending, race relations, and sexual assault.