Reformer of the Month

We never hear about the courageous reformers in Massachusetts who stand against the entrenched establishment and demand change. That’s because the establishment media do not want us to know about them. Whereas, our difficulty at Massachusetts News is the multitude of people from whom to pick. We could write a book.

Dave Deenan replaced all the American flags in Amherst after the terrorist attack.

An Old-Fashioned
Nice Guy

By Izzy Lyman
November 2001

Meet David T. Keenan, formerly known as "pigeon buster." Now known as "flag raiser."

In the early nineties, Amherst town officials budgeted $125,000 to rid the Town Hall attic of pigeon droppings.

Smelling a rat, Keenan volunteered the services of his construction crew to clean the attic for free, gratis. He even added a bit of street theater to make the offer. The "Pigeon Busters" arrived at a Select Board meeting clad in gas masks, hazmat suits, and rubber boots. It was a get-up that mimicked the costumes worn by the actors in the popular Ghostbuster movies.

Amherst Town Manager Barry Del Castilho, who oversees the Select Board, wasn't amused.

"The Town Manager said that morally he couldn't accept my offer because I might get injured," scoffs Keenan. "We all agreed to sign waivers, and my company was fully insured."

He explains why he was turned down. "After two failed overrides, Mr. Del Castilho was looking for funds to renovate Town Hall. He fabricated a health crisis, claiming that employees could get psittacosis because of the droppings."

The Town eventually paid an environmental contractor tens of thousands of dollars to clean the attic, but not without local officials garnering public ridicule.

Wellington Publications, a public policy press, wrote the following about the episode: "The problem started when a town employee thought she had contracted a disease transmitted by birds. Her supposition turned out to be false, but it spurred officials to action. The volunteers came up with a brilliant idea that apparently hadn't occurred to the elected officials ... fix the broken window frame that had let the pigeons enter the attic!!!"

Keenan, conversely, became something of a folk hero when his 'pigeon busting' tale made the Wall Street Journal.

"There is a population of hard-working, common-sense New Englanders in Amherst, but the constant pontificating of liberal gibberish intimidates them. Being humble people, they naturally think they are outnumbered."

Flag Raiser

Nearly a decade later, Dave Keenan is back in the national spotlight. He was interviewed on CNN about the Amherst flag controversy. Keenan was the ringleader of a group of citizens who brazenly hung 29 American flags back up on Main Street on September 11, the day after the Select Board ruled that the commemorative display could fly on only six holidays.

On 9/11, Keenan headed to the Amherst Department of Public Works (where the 29 flags were stored) to "steal them," as he put it.

"We needed the flags put up at half-mast as a way of showing appropriate consideration for the dead," said Keenan of his response to the terrorist hijackings.

This self-described "gadfly," who has lived in the college town of Amherst since 1968, has certainly had fun lampooning the liberal establishment. Keenan admits, however, that Amherst is more complex than its reputation as a hotbed for wacky left-wing causes.

Mr. Gadfly often undertakes volunteer projects to reveal that hard-working side. He constructed a playground at the Crocker Farm Elementary School with the help of a hundred UMass students. High school students also assisted him in building a handicapped-accessible ramp at the local VFW building.

Member of Establishment

Once upon a time he was even a member of the establishment. After five tries, he got elected to the Amherst Select Board in 1993 to a three-year term. He resigned after a year and a half.

"I told the chair of the Select Board that he had to stop holding closed meetings on Friday afternoons with the Town Manager, or I would resign. He didn't, and I did," he chuckles.

Keenan, 44, is married to Kimberly Storjohann, and is the father of five children.

Two of his daughters attend the local public schools, and he has started a campaign to encourage teachers to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in their classrooms.

In 1996, his activism took a more serious turn. He publicly opposed the decision by Amherst school officials to display a photo-text exhibit in the elementary schools titled "Love Makes A Family: Living in Lesbian and Gay Families." Keenan joined several families in a legal action to bar the exhibit from being shown.

Attorney Gregory Hession of Belchertown filed the complaint for the parents. According to the complaint, the photo exhibit would "sexually harass the student plaintiffs by creating an intimidating, hostile, humiliating, and sexually offensive education environment."

The legal challenge was an unsuccessful one, but Keenan remains glad he fought Love Makes a Family. "I opposed the exhibit, because it was not appropriate for the age group or the mission of public education."

He might be tagged as a "conservative" for that statement, and he has flirted with Republican Party politics, but he eschews labels when describing his civic contributions. "I am able work with people on both sides of the aisle, because I employ generous amounts of common sense to anything I do. My goal is long-term constructive change and community building."

"But," he adds with a grin, "I'm also grooming myself to be in the same league as humorist P.J. O'Rourke."

No kidding.