ABSTRACT
The dramatic protests in Allegany County included more than just masked horsemen engaging state troopers. A group of elderly men and women under a banner reading, “GRANDPARENTS FOR THE FUTURE,” braved the cold weather and chained themselves to a bridge—thus obstructing the Siting Commission. As state troopers began arresting this group, one of the women, Alex Landis, handed a folded flag to the county sheriff. It was the flag from the casket of her son, a World War II navy pilot. “If our freedom is taken away from me like this, I don’t want this thing any more,” she told the sheriff. “Help yourself” (Peterson 2002, 203).
