| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: Politix |
| Angry veterans confront New York village leaders |
| 2004-05-13 |
| Angry war veterans with flashing flag pins on their collars marched into the East Nassau Village Board meeting Wednesday to show officials how to say the Pledge of Allegiance with feeling. But the crowd of about 50 veterans left angrier than they were when they arrived. Last month the five-member board voted to remove the first line on their monthly agenda, the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, commonly said at all municipal meetings but not required by law. Elected officials said it was routine patriotism that is too often said without feeling and needlessly took time out of their regular meeting and village business. The move caused a sharp reaction from veterans groups, fraternal organizations and local and state politicians. Even Gov. George Pataki said he thought the move ill-advised and some politicians have suggested legislation be passed to make the pledge mandatory at municipal meetings. A story about the controversy ran on the front page of the military newspaper Stars and Stripes last week, said Bob Reiter, Rensselaer County veterans director. "Imagine that. Our people over there in Iraq going through all they are going through reading that," Reiter said before the meeting. The pledge was not listed on the top of the agenda handed out Wednesday. As soon as Mayor Robert Henrickson opened the 7:30 p.m. meeting at the rural Tsatsawassa Protective Fire Co. quarters in Brainard, he immediately tried to start talking to the veterans about a compromise the board had agreed on. The crowd interrupted loudly: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all." "And if you don’t have a tear in your eye and a lump in your throat when you say that, then you don’t know what it is to be an American," shouted Phil Schwartz, 81, a Marine Corps veteran of Guadalcanal. Some board members stood, put hands over their hearts and said the pledge with the group, but when the crowd broke into "God Bless America," with much emphasis on the three words, the officials were caught off guard and had already sat down. That stirred the veterans to lash out at the uneasy elected officials. "You sat through ’God Bless America,’ " Reiter yelled. "There is no excuse for that." Henrickson calmly tried to tell the group that the officials meant no disrespect to them or the flag. "I want to thank you all very much, but as I was trying to say at the beginning of the meeting we have made some changes," Henrickson said. The mayor said the board had decided that anyone who comes to the meetings in the future can request to lead the officials in the pledge. "We will stand, face the flag and say it with you," Henrickson said. "We are not un-American." "You’re the leader you should be leading the pledge," a veteran shouted at Henrickson. "This a bunch of baloney." The group then walked out of the meeting but vowed to return. Henrickson has said he was surprised at the reaction. When the trustees agreed to drop the pledge he said he went along because no one comes to meetings anyway. Only 35 people voted in the recent election. The village of 571 souls was created out of a successful fight to stop a mining operation on Snake Mountain. Henrickson said the elected officials, who were involved in that fight, are very mindful of their civic duties and responsibilities but believe it is more important to increase residents’ involvement in civic affairs, something the monthly ritual was not doing. "The real issue is how do we keep people involved in running their community," Henrickson said. "I can say I think we have a bit of start on that here tonight." |
| Posted by:TS(vice girl) |
| #3 It takes me more time than to say the pledge... It takes me more time to stand in a supermarket line, yet I buy groceries I need to survive. I takes me more time to fill out an application for a job or drivers license. It takes me more time to wait for a plane at the airport, yet I have to get to my destination. It takes me more time to do something wrong at work only to be told later by my supervisor I wasted so and so time on nothing. It takes me more time to sit in front of the tv set doing nothing but staring at the screen.. It takes me more time.... |
| Posted by: Anonymous5044 2004-05-29 5:38:40 PM |
| #2 Stand up for what makes you American - all the things that made us British are slowly disappearing in our society due to placating the minorities/liberals. One day you'll wake up and won't recognize the country you live in. Don't budge an inch. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-05-13 10:46:32 AM |
| #1 small people with small minds - how much time did the pledge take from their precious agenda? |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-05-13 10:13:47 AM |