Letter from Joan Parrillo

Banners Would Honor Veterans

My first instinct when I started working on a proposal to install “Hometown Heroes” banners in the Village of Cooperstown was to write a letter to the editor.

Instead, I e-mailed Cooperstown Mayor Ellen Tillapaugh and asked why we couldn’t honor our veterans with banners like all the other towns. She felt it was a good idea and so this is how the story of the unwanted banners begins.

I asked for permission of the use of the poles on Main Street for the banners for honoring the Cooperstown hometown veterans. Right away, one board member said to me that we have people who come here every year and feel like this is their home and I said, no, it’s for people that have lived or presently live in Cooperstown. Also anyone that went to school here and Legion members—that’s what “hometown” means.

The village trustee meeting on Monday, July 22 begins. I read my request and the questions start. I had the representative from the banner company come to town to answer any questions the trustees had. I used the words “Hometown Heroes,” so they wanted to know why just veterans. My reply was that I was only working with veterans—that anyone else who wanted to take on others could. (I did not say what I should have, that every Memorial Day there is something to do with the Hall of Fame that takes the Memorial Day weekend away from the veterans. All those people that come are thinking about is baseball, let’s face it.)