The people of Hailey, Idaho have finally wizened up and decided to cancel a ‘welcome home’ rally for deserter, traitor Bowe Bergdahl as backlash grows.
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| Hailey, Idaho cancels welcome home rally for deserter Bergdahl |
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The hometown of U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, feeling a backlash over allegations that he was a deserter, has canceled a rally planned for later this month celebrating his release from five years of Taliban captivity, officials said on Wednesday.
Heather Dawson, the city administrator of Hailey, Idaho, told Reuters that town officials called off the June 28 event at the request of organizers because the town “will be unable to safely manage the number of people expected.”
The decision came as the community came under mounting pressure to cancel the rally in the face of rising anger, expressed in emails and phone calls directed at city officials and businesses, over claims by Bergdahl’s onetime Army comrades that he had deliberately abandoned his post in Afghanistan.
Stefanie O’Neill, an organizer of the welcome-home rally originally set for June 28, had insisted as late as Tuesday that the celebration would go on as planned. But on Wednesday, she and her mother, Debbie, a co-organizer of the event, paid a visit to the Army sergeant’s parents, Bob and Jani Bergdahl, to ask whether they wanted the celebration to proceed as planned.
A short time later came the city’s announcement that the event was being canceled.