Editorial: A parade runs its natural course

Published on May 02, 2008

Amherst Town Manager Larry Shaffer's move to sideline a private group's Fourth of July parade will be uphill walking, all the way to July 2009.

It could draw a legal challenge. It risks further dividing people who already disagree about limits parade organizers impose on participants.

And creating an alternative town-sponsored parade will require a financial commitment even as Amherst looks for money to cover celebration of the town's 250th anniversary.

But Shaffer's move to safeguard free speech on public ways is commendable.

It sends the right signal that when it comes to principles of free speech, compromise is costly.

The Select Board's decision last week to back Shaffer on the question - knowing full well parade organizers will not go quietly into the night - is also praiseworthy.

The private July 4th parade was organized the year after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks to honor public safety personnel, veterans and Americans serving in the military.

Shaffer said he asked organizers Kevin Joy and Larry Kelley to drop the restrictions on free speech the parade has imposed on participants.

They agreed to clarify their policy and to allow participants to hold signs bearing group names.

But they refused to yield on the critical issue: To let anyone walking on the anniversary of the nation's independence express their political views.

And on that point, Shaffer drew a line on the concrete.

The plain-speaking Shaffer put the issue to the Select Board last week, which agreed that come 2009, the town will not award a parade permit to the private group.

"How is it," Shaffer asked, "that on the nation's birthday, in Amherst, any American can be denied their constitutional right to freedom of speech on town-owned streets during a celebration ostensibly devoted to that freedom so denied?"

Instead, Shaffer proposes that the town's Leisure Services and Supplemental Education department step in to organize a 2009 procession that is open to all - and all viewpoints.

This year, since a permit has already been awarded, the private group is free to run its parade, which it has done with enthusiasm, good spirit and admirable patriotism since after the terror attacks of Sept. 11.

Organizers are already seeking permission to run their parade in 2009, despite the board's vote. Rather than set themselves on a July Fourth collision course with the town, they should consider moving their event to Memorial Day or Veterans Day.

Court precedent allows private groups to restrict the conduct of marchers in parades on public streets.

We think the 6-year-old Amherst parade will find a better home on a holiday that is not so closely aligned with the cherished principles of free speech and independence.

Shaffer's stance creates a hundred and one headaches for himself and other town officials before Independence Day rolls around in 2009.

But anyone who takes seriously the rights won by the nation's founders - a fight that began on a certain July day in 1776 - owes Shaffer a tip of the tricorn.