Controversy erupted a couple weeks ago in a small town in Connecticut after an elected official decided to take a knee during the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance prior to the start of a town meeting.
According to The Washington Post, Selectwoman Melissa Schlag — a member of the Haddam, Connecticut, board of selectmen, or executive body — took a knee on July 16 in protest against President Donald Trump, and vowed in a Facebook post to continue doing so as long as he remained in office, sparking an outcry from some and praise from others.
Amid the outcry over the past few weeks, which saw protests against her actions as well as in support of them, video also emerged of her stating, “This town is fascist and racist,” for which she has apologized, though she has not apologized for the kneeling, which many view as disrespectful to the country and the men and women who’ve fought and died on its behalf.
At another town meeting on Monday, Schlag once again knelt during the pledge and received an earful of boos from the crowd, followed later by a righteous rant from a black military veteran — identified by The Post as Haddam resident Pablo Arroyo — that left her sitting in cold silence.
Black veteran slams Democrat councilwoman Melissa Schlag after she was filmed kneeling during national anthem. pic.twitter.com/0hDkAJcsRh
— Kyle Morris (@RealKyleMorris) August 3, 2018
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“I wholeheartedly respect your right to protest, to take a knee, to lay down, to burn the flag, to do whatever it is … that you please. But if that’s what you would like to do, do that on your own time,” he stated while holding a small American flag to a round of applause and raucous cheers from a majority of the gathered residents.
“Kneel at your son or daughter’s Little League game. When you become an elected official, you become a representative of all of Haddam and all of your constituency,” he continued, before likening her to the famed statue of Lady Justice, the only difference being that she was peeking out from under her blindfold to show favoritism to one side over the other.
“You ran as a Democrat, but once you became elected, unfortunately, you have to represent all of your constituents here. Last week and this week, you told at least half the town ‘I don’t care whether I offend you and I’m gonna act on my whim,’” he proclaimed to another round of applause.
“You took an oath, you took an oath …,” he added, among other things that were drowned out by the uproarious cheers and clapping he received at the conclusion of his justified rant.
Are you glad this veteran stepped up and spoke his mind about an elected official kneeling for the pledge?
One might think that the verbal beatdown she received from angry constituents would have an effect, but The Post reported that Schlag appears to have dismissed it and remains locked into her partisan display that has proven quite unpopular with a number of her town’s residents.
Indeed, though she declined to offer up any comment with regard to this incident to The Post, she did take to her Facebook page — in a post that now appears to have been deleted — where she reportedly referred to the Monday town meeting as a “verbal stoning.”
“The intolerance and hate was palpable in the room. The room booed throughout their own pledge as they belted the pledge at me like (a) weapon. I was told I urinated on the graves of dead soldiers. I was told I hate my country,” The Post reported she had written on Wednesday.
Based on those snippets from the now-missing post, as well as her comments to “trolls” on her other posts that are still up, it is readily apparent that she is unrepentant and gleaned no real lesson from the impassioned words of the veteran who pleaded with her to cease kneeling for the pledge while in her official capacity.
Such a request is not at all out of bounds, and the veteran was quite right when he noted that despite Schlag’s party affiliation, she represents all of the town residents during those meetings and should act accordingly.
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In other words, as the man stated, protest on your own time, but leave the divisive partisan antics at the door while serving on behalf of Haddam’s residents, who don’t all share in her unpatriotic views and perhaps wouldn’t have elected her if they’d known how she would conduct herself as a representative of the town’s residents.
This man who fought and sacrificed on behalf of this country simply couldn’t bear to see an elected official of his town be so disrespectful to the symbol of this great nation, and he didn’t hold anything back as he let her know how he — and apparently plenty of others in the town — truly felt about her anti-American display.
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via Conservative Tribune
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