Town meeting should reject Article 41 because sexual orientation, color of skin, health and wellness, gender, environmental issues and changes in the meaning of English words (including the word rainbow) are not well-represented by a flag in any community.
Work in the community to make the American flag ensure inclusivity, support, a sense of belonging, respect for others and acceptance among human beings who have the right to live with dignity.
If this flag is added to the three now recognized we could ask: Where does it end? The American flag represents the hope we all have for our community.
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Discrimination Against Muslim Americans Persists 25 Years After 9/11
By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Dozens of Muslim Americans were among people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Untold numbers of Muslim Americans have suffered countless acts of discrimination in their aftermath.
"Of course, you'll find several accounts of Muslims from all over the U.S. describing how they went from the unknown kids in the school to being stereotyped or ridiculed for their Muslim names," Sidra Mahmood recalled recently. "However, many Americans forget that the victims of 9/11 were also Muslim Americans.
"I can't forget the time when a classmate broke down in sobs when 9/11 came up in our classroom at the Islamic seminary I went to in Texas, because her father's best friend who was like an uncle to her, died on 9/11."
Today, Mahmood is a chaplain at Williams College. In 2001, she was growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, when terrorists forced two passenger jets into the Twin Towers in lower Manhattan and another plane into the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C. A third plane, which terrorists hoped to crash into a D.C. landmark, was brought down in western Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back against the hijackers.
The attacks, which ultimately claimed 2,976 lives, horrified people around the world, including in Mahmood's native land.
"I remember being aghast like anyone who witnessed the fall of the Twin Towers in real time," she said. "However, even as a child, fear gripped me about the possibility of war, especially once we learned that Afghanistan, right adjacent to Pakistan, would be attacked by the U.S. My mother had told me about the 1971 war between India and Pakistan when she remembered hiding in the dark after bomb sirens would go off in Punjab after intentional blackouts.
Dozens of Muslim Americans were among people killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Untold numbers of Muslim Americans have suffered countless acts of discrimination in their aftermath.
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