Country kin and flatlanders
Subject: [MEDIASTATEWIDE] Press Release - Vandalism to an Historic Site
STATE OF VERMONT
DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY
VERMONT STATE POLICE
PRESS RELEASE
INCIDENT: Vandalism to an Historic Site
CASE #: 07C203487
Barracks: New Haven Troop “C” CONTACT#: 388-3919
Vermont State Police are continuing to investigate the vandalism to the Homer Noble Farm which was the summer home to Robert Frost. Investigation at this point has revealed that this incident was a large underage drinking party that was planned and organized by a 17 year old Ripton resident. A 22 year old Middlebury resident has been indentified as the subject who purchased the large amount of alcohol for the party. The people attending the party, as many as 50, have been indentified and have ranged in age from 15 to 22 years of age. The investigation and interviews with these individuals are ongoing. In addition to the large amounts of alcohol and evidence of drug use found at the site, fire extinguishers were set off inside the whole first floor of the property and every room on the first floor of the building received a large amount of damage. Some individuals vomited and urinated inside the building and on the damaged property. A list of damaged property provided by Middlebury College revealed the damage to be in excess of $10,000. Anyone with any information about this incident is asked to call the Vermont State Police, New Haven Barracks, at 388-4919.
Oh yes Ripton, where once upon a time the hillwilliams of Vermont took to carnal knowledge of goats as a break from the run-of-mill incest. I’m unable to determine the effect on the goats; it did nothing for the collective genetics of the village. That was then, the police report is now.
Larry, Daryl and Daryl of the 1970’s seldom, if ever, hiked up the road to the Breadloaf campus of Middlebury College for an afternoon of tea and profundities; probably they heavily hunted the lands around the Homer Noble farmstead and Frost’s Vermont retreat. Ripton residents will regale one with tales of fossilized knuckle drags in the marl east by north of the village.
Today Ripton is a town run by the oh so sensitives telling the unwashed of Addison County how wonderful is the chi-chi progressive life, including how uninhibited is their spawn ripening in this multicultural and diverse microcosm of liberality.
Is it not strange that Larry, nor his brothers Daryl, offspring of Woodchucks and sires of the same never trashed Frost’s retreat? No bullet holes in the walls, arson attempts, or prankish, childish behavior rising to felonious heights graced the front pages of the local papers. So many years and so many opportunities for sport missed.
Give the progressives an occasion to educate their larvae in Politically Correct ways and a sulfurous rift opens, popping out an extremely warm hand basket.
Once more in Ripton, the goats are very nervous.
The North Branch Private and Ripton Elementary School data.
There is a sidebar to this tale concerning the town, one of the schools and Festivus Poles. The post will include photos and some editorial comment. Once it was said that arguing with persons that buy ink by the hogshead and paper by the ton is folly. That is still true; computers make it more immediate. The Woodchuck will be sensitive as only he knows how.
Archived in: Diversity, Education, Liberalism, Political Correctness, Progressives, VermontJanuary 7, 2008 at 8:45 pm | Trackback
28 comments
My guess would be that many of the party goers were from some of the better homes in the greater Middlebury area. The profile of the political donations on the Ripton data page says a lot.
Ah, yes, the “Festivus” poles. You might be relieved to know that those poles are not in celebration of the fictional Seinfeld holiday “Festivus,” but rather are there to honor those soldiers who have given their lives for the United States while serving in Iraq. Each colored stripe represents one fallen soldier. There’s a sign there stating something to the same effect.
The Eagle photographer tipped me off to this dustup.
I’ll have answers to why are the poles so gaily decorated? How many young maple trees died for this display?
I’m hearing his is a war memorial as told to me by the photographer after people called him screeching about the picture that ran in the “Addison Eagle.” I’m just wondering to which side.
I am a 14 year old student at the North Branch School in Ripton, Vermont. Last year, our teacher asked us if the number 2854 meant anything to us. It didn’t. Later, he told us that it was the number of US soldiers that had been killed in the war in Iraq. He took a huge box of stale Cheerios and counted out 2854, and we spread them out to see how big the number really was. And no longer was it a number, because each cheerio now represented a life, the brief spark of existence of a brave us soldier. After the cheerios, we decided that we wanted to let other people know what we had discovered–how big this number really was, how it was not merely 4 digits, but each a life. We bought 50 eight foot tall cedar posts, and painted aprox. 60 stripes on each one. We dug holes along the side of the road by our school, and planted them, along with an almost six foot tall sign stating our purpose and the correct day to day number of US casualties. This beginning of the poles project took 26 11-15 year olds a combined 500 man hours. As the number continues to grow, the poles continue to grow. THIS IS NOT, AND HAS NEVER BEEN, AN ANTI-WAR PROTEST. This was one of the things we decided in our first meeting about them–no matter our political views, or our viewers political views, we wanted this number to become something easily grasped and comprehended.
They are bright because we didn’t want to honor their deaths, but celebrate their lives.
The Addison Eagle’s mistakes were astonishing–to miss such a huge sign, to not have proper fact checking, to not have read the other local news papers who have covered this story, and to cast the whole thing off as a creation of Seinfield is almost disgusting. As a student who helped create the idea, I was greatly shocked and embarrassed and mad at and our local paper. Not because they had so greatly disrespected us, the kids, but because they had so greatly disrespected the surviving loved ones of the soldiers symbolized in our monument.
Republicans and Democrats and Independents and people of all political and religious background are symbolized and honored in the memorial we created. This is a non-political display made by a bunch of honest school kids.
Sophie:
Well done and thank you very much. Most of us here have military/combat experience and three of us have sons or other relatives in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Speaking for myself, I appreciate what you’ve done.
Confusion over the kind of memorial you built derives from the sentimentalization of the dead as a way to emphasize an anti-war point of view. This is done routinely by anti-war groups on the left and right. Sentimentality is what remains after real emotion is gone or never existed in the first place; it’s temporary, shallow and fleeting. It’s exploitative, and suppresses critical judgement. Even Memorial Day in some quarters is an opportunity to vent emotions which visit once a year.
I use the expression anti-war reluctantly, because none of us here is pro-war, and while I have no complaint with the genuine pacifist, much of what passes for pacifist conviction in The West is something else. We’ve talked about it on this blog.
For those of us who saw our fellow soldiers/Marines airmen die, and participated in the calamities that killed them, there is always the tempation to trivialize their sacrifices by indulging in a little pleasant melancholy. Most of us avoid it, I think, and sometimes jump to conclusions. The Eagle seems to have done the same thing.
Thank you.
hotspur:
Thanks so much. I appreciate your response. It is very thoughtful, and I will read it to my classmates tomorrow.
sophie
You’re a very interesting 14-year old, Sophie. Your compositional style is very…adult.
Here’s our two cents about the Ripton Festivus poles: My husband and I live in East Middlebury, VT; we saw these a month ago and also assumed they were Seinfeld joke “Festivus” poles (we’ve seen Festivus poles that look just like these at a Salisbury, VT home)–we had no idea this garbage was a war memorial! Who makes such a ridiculous, festive looking MEMORIAL to BRAVE PATRIOTS?! And they also honor dead terrorists! AN OUTRAGE. Remove these poles now! You can’t even identify the signage these people say is there. Students made these?! They–and their teachers–should be ashamed and punished for insulting our free homeland and all the brave patriots who died to let them act like morons. These poles arent; a emorial, they are an insult to the brave Americans who died fighting Islamic terrorists to have these look like Festivus barber poles. This isn’t a war memrorial–it’s a twitsed insult to our military. I think the poles should be removed.
Hey, Woodchuck: That letter couldn’t possibly have been written by a 14-year-old–it’s not all that well written; it reads more like an adult was behind it! You’ve been had. I had no idea this thing was up in Ripton Vermont. Oh, I agree with Mary B. Someone should have the walnuts and go down there remove those offensive poles at the school. I am a Gulf War vet. (I live in Maine now but used to live in Middlebury.) I find this so-called memorial as nothing more than an anti-military (anti U.S.) statement. Shame on the North Branch School faculty and students. They are worse than the terrorist enemy because they are the enemy within our own midst.
All check back, the Woodchuck has his stink stick out and is heading to the privy to stir the effluvia. I have further postings on Miz sophie epistle and school memorial.
Dear Mary:
Thank you for your input–this is what we wanted to do when we started the project, to spark the minds of people who have seen it or have read about it.
I am sorry that it offends you–and if we had known about the poles in Salisbury, we would have done them differently.
We chose to make them bright and colorful for two reasons:
1. Purely aesthetic and practical; what we had set out to do was to make passerby grasp a number as more than just the blank 4 digits that you can see on a page. Bright colors get peoples attention, and they look nice and stand out in the snow, which as we live in Vermont is something we have to take into consideration.
2. We chose to make them colorful because we wanted to show them soldiers in the LIFE that they had lived, not how they had died. This was something we all agreed on, and are sorry if you don’t like it.
I don’t quite know how to answer the rest of your response, I guess just to reiterate that we are not making a political statement about how we feel about the war. We are not making huge signs saying, “Stop the war!”, because this IS NOT A POLITICAL PROTEST OF ANY KIND. It is simply a way of seeing a number as something more than 4 digits.
Of the soldiers honored in our memorial (though that isn’t quite the right word I am begging to realize) are those that were for the war, and those that were against it. In what we are showing, there is no difference.
Also, There is a 6 ft tall sign saying exactly what the poles are at the beginning of them.
Tom–
I don’t quite know how to convince you that I’m 14, but am honored that you think 14 year-olds are better writers than adults! That made me smile. I guess the reason you might think something about my writing style is that I am trying NOT to use the anonymity of being behind a computer and not talking to you face to face make my writing sloppy, because this is something that I care about deeply. All I can say is that I was born in 1993, and am in 9th grade at a Middle School.
If you want to talk to me, or to our school, I invite you to call us (The North Branch School, Ripton, VT 05766) and we would be glad to talk to you about our project.
I am deeply saddened that you find our poles offensive. I hope you can see a picture or someday drive by–maybe your mind will change.
None of us want this to be something that makes people (espically veterans and parents of the soldiers) offended. Actually, this is the first negative response we have had–parents of solders have stopped by, written to us, called us, anything to make us know how much they appreciate it.
The reason we finally decided to make them colored (other than the two reasons above) is because we thought that if we were part of the four digit number that we are representing, we would want to be celebrated as we lived, not as we died. There is a time and a place for amazingly beautiful and moving and solemn stone memorial, there is a time and a place for sixty colorful stripes to stand out against the beautiful snow and make the people who drive by our school think. They are very different, and (I think) equally important.
Thank you for your input–we as a school have no political views or affiliation, and by no means want to be or are “the enemy within”.
Hotspur:
I read your letter to my class today at morning meeting, everyone was extremely grateful and honored. Thank you so much for your kind words—you and people like you are one of the reasons we made them.
All of you (and anyone else) are invited to come drive by our Poles Project and see them for yourselves.
sophie
Welcome, Tom!
Good to have another Main’ah onboard.
See Country kin and Flatlanders #2 with photos.
sophie, what I find offensive is the sniveling and rancor coming from the Oh So Sensitive.
I am the head teacher at the North Branch School, and I am the teacher of Sophie (last name removed by NER). I can attest that the words she wrote are her own. I think our community is lucky to have someone like her in it.
I would add a couple of other facts about the poles. When we were trying to figure out a way to illustrate the number of caualties, we tried to come up with an economical, simple, and visible method. We asked our parents to bring us left-over paint from their basements and garages. The colors we used were the colors donated to us.
Our students worked hard and long to come up with a statement that was non-political but arresting and visceral. It was a huge challenge.
Before anyone gets too down on these kids for doing what they did, try doing something like it yourself. Try making a big statement. Try to say something important without using words. Try to make it visible; try to make it durable, try to make it big, try to make people think, try to balance every viewpoint, and try to do honor. That’s what my students did. They tried, and they worked hard. I’m proud of them for that.
I can assure you that my students are not “the enemy within,” unless you define “the enemy within” as those among us who are learning to consider and talk about matters of life, death, peace and war.
Tal Birdsey
You people are jerks.
Big, fat, cowardly jerks.
Ill tell you why.
You hide behind your phony blogs making fun af a fourteen year old girl because of your insolence and cruel desires.
You think your so smart.
You think your so cool.
You think your so rightous.
But ill tell you what you really are:
Afraid.
If you people really want to tell us what you feel about these poles, you come to our school and tell it to all of us.
Dont write it down on a computer.
Tell it to us.
Prove it to me that your not a coward.
You know where we are.
So if you have something to say, stop hiding behind your computer and insulting us.
Come out and talk to us, face to face.
Also, if the terrorists are your enemy, why dont you and your rightous buddies go join the army and fight them yourselves?
So how about it?
You may say you have famalies to tend too. Or a good paying job.
So did the soldiers in iraq.
Those soldiers are brave enough to go and fight for what they believe in.
Have you done anything to help “the war on terrorizm” recently other than criticize teenagers?
Ill tell ya, makin’ fun o teenageroos is really helpful and productive.
If so, write it in this blog if you need too.
Tell me what youve done.
But I still wont believe you till you tell it to my face.
Talk to me, if you want. Ill be at the north branch school with the rest of my chums. A good time would be around three thirty four o’clock. thats when we get out of school.
Sophies there too, if you have something to say to her.
Speaking of which, for all yall information, sophie IS fourteen, and a very close friend of mine. I like her alot, and so does the entire town of ripton (556 people), she is an important part of my life.
So Dont insult her again.
Its not nice. Didnt your mom ever teach you your manners?
Signed,
Cody McGlashan
(if you have any further insults to tell me beyond this blog, I already told you, ill be at the north branch school.
By the way, Hotspur. I honor you. Keep it real.
…another question…
If we are “blaming” the “kids”, who was it who asked for the paint donations?
“I would add a couple of other facts about the poles. When we were trying to figure out a way to illustrate the number of caualties, we tried to come up with an economical, simple, and visible method. We asked our parents to bring us left-over paint from their basements and garages. The colors we used were the colors donated to us.”
Tal Birdsey
…and another question…
If vets were to shed tears, would you respect them more?
By the way, Cody, you sound like a fighter. But even if we’re jerks, we’re not cowards.
It seem that we have two writing samples from the hyper-educated students at the North Branch School.
Comparisons anyone?
I posted two comments, both gone. Are they being moderated?
Thank you Mr. Birdsey, you enlightened me far beyond your desires.
Student’s last name is (removed by NER). That should tell you something about the source.
Hotspur, check your e-mail.
I haven’t moderated any comments Hotspur.
Lazurus, I decided to remove Sophie’s last name as she did not provide it in her own comments. Her teacher listed it in his comment which to me is a breach of her privacy. If Sophie would like to leave her last name she can do so in her own comment.
Mr. Birdsey, I would suggest using a little more discretion next time when discussing your students on the internet. As I am sure you are aware, Federal law is very strict when it comes to ensuring the privacy of students.
Wow, I can’t believe a teacher would identify a student’s name like that on a blog! How totally unprofessional.
Good. Thank you for doing so.
I believe the youngsters when they say they believe the memorial is apolitical. I’m not so sure about the adults….and it would be easier to watch this from afar, but I can’t.
Cody displays a lot of fighting spirit. He’s ready to challenge his opponents, to fight for a principle and to defend his comrades. It’s the same impulse that usually takes a nation to war, and the current war(s) are no exception. This kind of enthusiasm often ends in dead and wounded, and while I admire Cody’s backbone in the abstract, in the world of solid objects, things are much more complicated.
For instance, Cody assumes we’re chickenhawks, which is a staple of the anti-war cohort left and right. If the chickenhawk argument is that service is the entry fee to comment with authority on war, then lack of service therefore disqualifies one from commenting on the same subject. You have to be careful with the chickenhawk accusation, because it nullifies a lot of the simple conviction behind the Ripton memorial. How many of the participants are combat veterans?
In re memorials, the permanent ones are an index to a nation’s history, and they range from the jingoistic to the sublime, like Ghandi’s statue in Tavistock Square, to the obsolete, like the ones the colonial powers planted in their colonies. The temporary ones are usual developed to express a froth of grief, like the ones for Princess Diana, or a make a trenchant political point. Which one is Ripton? I think it’s a little of both.
Furthermore, one thing all memorials all have in common is that they’re built by people with moral territory to claim. Memorials are about ethics, aspirations, pride and anguish and remembrance. No memorial makes half a statement, and this is where Ripton becomes a bit of a problem, because it’s making a statement that its creators deny.
If it’s about celebrating the lives of the dead, then any old memorial will do. Cancer kills the young, so do automobiles and drugs and lots of other things. But the deux ex machina that justifies this memorial is the Iraq War, and that’s the ethical point being made, no matter what the teachers or the honest young say about it. The event in which these celebrated dead lost their lives is war, and specifically the Iraq War. So it’s an anti-war memorial by implication.
The Ripton arrangment is also an art form, which means that it can be justified as a type of self-expression rather than a statement “about” something complicated in the real world. This is a cop-out.
At the bottom of all this is real cynicism about Iraq, which I share. But many of the same people who hate this war, and its casualty list, and who deride the questionable principles which led to it, can also accept the death of forty million potential human beings based upon a derived right to “choice” spun from a derived right to privacy. The Joker in this deck is consistency, and selective pacifism is the gaudiest joker of all.
Cody, Hotspur is way too nice. Using students as sock puppets for a position which may or may not be owned by them is rather low. It borders on abuse.
For those who think they have control over their beliefs, Cody, please answer the questions posed in Country kin and flatlanders #2 with out outside influence.
Hotspur went to a place I hope you never have to go. Coward? Cowardly? I don’t think so. Scared, I would guess so, but I’d let him answer that.
As to the “Kill them all, let God sort’em out” mentality, give it up, that comes from too many video games. You and your teachers, unless they served in a combat theater, haven’t earned the right to even twist up your nose in a sniff.
Ever hear the old mantra of the loopy left? “Suppose they gave a war and nobody showed up.” Well try this! “Suppose the other side gives a war AND shows up.” What do you do then? Ask for time out?
On 9-11 this is what happened, they gave a war and showed up. No restart or pause button available in this dustup.