ATHENS, Maine — Organizers of a Fourth of July parade in central Maine are canceling this year’s procession after last year’s event was marred by bloody fistfights, public drunkenness, drug paraphernalia sales and pickup drivers burning rubber.
West Athens has been holding a zany parade each Independence Day for 40 years featuring madcap floats, belly dancing, hippies, children’s kazoo bands and a political satire play in a local gravel pit.
But the parade won’t go on this year after more than 50 residents petitioned selectmen asking them to stop it.
Tamar Etingen, one of the original parade participants, told the Morning Sentinel that the reported use of the synthetic drug known as “bath salts” during last summer’s parade changed the atmosphere from peace and fun to violence and aggression.
Bath salts = out of control parade goers = violence & aggression = cancellation of parade……Crazy…..
What a shame, now where will Mainers go to see the kind of high-brow political satire that Tamar Etingen’s In Spite of Life Players offered?
That production where they burned George W. Bush in effigy was a real knee-slapper.
The point is you won’t be going anywhere because there isn’t anything like this parade, according to the stories last summer. The focus had to be on “safe”, it wasn’t “safe” and yes, “safe” is in quotes. Where is that “safe” place?
“safe” can only be present if the participants involved are sober enough. Organizers of the parade can’t make it “safe”.
It only takes a few “Jerks” to ruin anything!
I know! I’d be getting some new selectmen!
A shame. Once again, free speech is suppressed. Pretty soon no one will be able to go anywhere as the progression of our blocking off into little cubicles continues. We thought it’d be fun to go to your town this summer and have fun celebrating the 4th with the locals who are so patriotic and creative! Your selectmen and do-gooders have certainly ruined that idea. I guess we’ll just sit in the house and watch the fireworks on tv where it’s “safe”. That’s just as good, right?
This has nothing to do with ‘free speech’, and if anything the selectmen listened to the people of the town. I remember reading about this on July 5th last year – it was a big problem, peoples’ houses and property were being vandalized, there were multiple fights, etc…mostly from people who were not from the town. You also have to remember they don’t have the police force to handle such a large crowd of people – so it’s not like they can easily add that much extra security.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/once-peaceful-parade-turns-ugly-and-violent_2011-07-06.html
the town doesn’t want a crowd that the police have to monitor. The whole idea was that the police stay away and people are free to celebrate…………
“free speech” does not involve fighting, drug use, destroying private (or public) property, intimidation, threats or public urination…
If you think that is what free speech is, you need to go back to school.
So, enforce the laws! There, that was easy.
Even easier: don’t BREAK the laws in the first place with inane, obnoxiously redneck, drunken antics! Cheaper that way too. No police overtime, courts, cleanup etc. Simple and obvious answer, really.
The few ruining it for everyone else….
did you not read the article? the people along the parade route NOT the selectman don’t want those crazy bath salt morons ruining their property
830 in the town, and 50 signed a petition. That’s all it took to ruin a 40+ year tradition people, wake up!
Click on the Morning Sentinel link for a more complete story.
The people along the parade route requested that the parade be cancelled, and the parade organizers aquiesced. The selectmen didn’t force the cancellation:
“Zeke Russell, whose family owns the gravel pit where In Spite of Life Players have staged their annual plays, said the pit will be closed on the Fourth of July this year. He said the family worries about the liability of a return to 2011’s event.
“The event means a lot to us. My dad founded it, and it was a real joy in his life,” he said. “And it’s been a real joy in mine.”
The gravel pit was owned by Russell’s father, Daniel, who died in 2003.
Tamar Etingen, one of the original parade participants and set designers, said the people who live along the parade route have spoken — the parade is over.
“If we have respect for the residents of West Athens — they have requested that we stop the parade — then I think the parade needs to stop, at least temporarily,” Etingen said. “As far as the play goes, the play could be anywhere. It could be anytime. It certainly isn’t the political climate to give up political satire, and I think we need it more than ever.”
It took 40 years for “Zany” to evolve int0 “Scary.” Mainers should get used to this as we now have a large segment of society who know no limits to their behavior. Smoking a little weed and drinking a few beers turned into some using bath salts and getting totally hammered behind the wheel. No city or town can take on this liability.
Societal decay.
…..
When people want to know what goes in inside Somerset County ,Maine, they come to me.
Here is another angle to the West Athens near-riot. A rotten to the core, ‘good old boy’ network runs and operate Somerset County and it includes running all levels of State government in Somerset County. If you or your community is not in that ‘good boy’ network’ that runs Somerset County, your community gets squat help in Somerset County. The good old boy network gets away with alot of CR-P including skirting the laws and ordinances in the county, including ‘you wash my hands, i will wash yours’ . The good old boy network comes in handy in the courts when one of the good old boy network runs afoul of the law, or one of their kids. get my drift? : ‘in the Halls of Justice, the only Justice is in the Halls ‘
What happen in West Athens was close to a near-riot. There were plenty of video and cell camera identifying photos of the near-riot perpetrators. The community of West Athens is not in the ‘good old boy’ network that runs and operates Somerset County, so the Somerset County did SQUAT to bring the perpetrators to justice. Perhaps if some of the subjects that ruined the West Athens parade were brought to justice in the aftermath, the parade could go on with some sort of security the melee would not repeat. But again, West Athens is not in the loop of the ‘good old boy ‘network’ and got no help. And the criminals bested law abiding citizens in Somerset County once again.
Thank you Walter Cronkite…..
I am definitely a legend in my own mind
LOL!!…..I usually develop myself into a mindless legend at times…..I still think I could have caught Tom Brady’s Hail Mary pass into the end zone Sunday evening to pull out the win over the Giants…….
My mind is bigger. Had i decided to be a professional football player, Brady would have been the backup quarterback for me over the past 10 years.
Was my comment removed because I said I give up or because I talked about cowards and whiners?
Have you ever been to West Athens? Many people in West Athens will not like this. This will go over like a fat rat. I see problems coming around the 4th of july. These people can be notty!!!!