The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘We’ve gotten extremely polarized’
Officials kneeling at Pledge sparks spirited debate on respect, patriotism
MIDDLETOWN — The debate over a Haddam selectwoman kneeling at town meetings when the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem are played has evoked a flood of reactions state and country wide.
“I don’t kneel because I hate my country, I kneel because I love my country. I don’t kneel to disrespect veterans or the flag, I kneel to respect what they fought so hard for,” Selectman Melissa Schlag, a Democrat, said earlier this week.
“Without that, we have nothing, and they fought for nothing, and we’ve lost everything,” she added.
In Middletown, Democratic Board of Education member Lisa Loomis-Davern has been doing the same since November, and has only been recently denounced for her actions on Facebook. She wrote an oped piece this week in the Press explaining her decision.
Republican Regional School District 17 Board of Education members Maura Wallin of Haddam and Eric Couture of Killingworth have been kneeling at meetings since August, but have received almost no pushback, they said.
Wallin’s Latina daughter asked whether her mother would be OK with her kneeling at events, said Wallin, daughter of a Vietnam veteran and the granddaughter of a World War II veteran, who spent 12 years as a Navy wife.
“My child saw injustice in the world that is aimed at people who look like her, and I want all of my children and all adults and children of color to know they have an ally in me,” she said, noting she told her daughter she would support any decision she made.
“I don’t kneel because I hate my country, I kneel because I love my country.”
Selectwoman Melissa Schlag
Couture said he and Wallin happened to make their decision at the same time.
“We’re not living up to ideals of our country if the last line of the Pledge of Allegiance is ‘liberty and justice for all,’ when millions of Americans don’t fully experience that every day,” Couture said.
“I find it really disappointing that our local representatives running for office, Democrats are not standing out and speaking strongly for it,” said former Middletown BOE member Ed McKeon, a Democrat, about few Republicans speaking publicly about the issue.
The first time LoomisDavin knelt was at her swearing-in ceremony in November.
“I’m very interested why there’s such an explosion, particularly around Melissa Schlag, when there have been other elected officials in Haddam who have been kneeling for more than a year. Why Melissa and why now?” she asked.
“It’s political, pure and simple,” McKeon said.
“These days, unfortunately, the president sets the precedent. You can say whatever you want to say, and have the opposite be true, or have things that point in the other direction,” he added.
Loomis-Davern said she suspects personal attacks on her and others are motivated by the upcoming elections as well as the freedom of speech social media makes possible, which “allows people that are not in the community, once they hear about it, to
“I find it really disappointing that our local representatives running for office, Democrats are not standing out and speaking strongly for it.”
Ed McKeon, former Middletown BOE member
just pile on and being able to hide behind their computers.”
Some of her critics, she said, use fake names and say “awful things.”
“People blatantly lie or point out something that serves their purposes without pointing to the thing that indicts them as well,” McKeon said.
In a video posted Wednesday on the Facebook page of state Rep. Art Linares, R-Westbrook, Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Herbst and he spoke against Schlag, ahead of a planned rally Monday at 5:30 p.m. at the Haddam selectmen’s meeting.
The assembly will be held at the firehouse on Saybrook Road because so many people on both sides of the issue are expected to attend.
Herbst discussed Schlag on a television appearance on Fox and Friends, asking for her immediate resignation.
“We’re calling on all veterans, all public officials, on all law enforcement, and patriotic Americans, all Americans that believe we must respect our flag, to show up in record numbers,” Herbst said, referring to the rally.
Republicans have created the hashtag, #dontschlagtheflag.
William Wilson, chairman of the Middletown Republican Town Committee, takes issue when Democrats and others say Schlag’s and Loomis-Davin’s detractors are confusing nationalism with patriotism.
“To me, the flag doesn’t represent the president, it represents our country. With elected officials, they were elected for other reasons, and this distracts from what they’re supposed to be doing, which is working for the people,” he said.
“We’ve gotten extremely polarized politically in this time,” Loomis-Davern said. “This is connected to why Republican elected officials have not gotten any criticism while Democratic officials have.”
But Wilson said, “I don’t see how [kneeling in protest] is a helpful part of the process. This distracts from the real issues that are going on. It’s a way of demonstrating, but my point is all along is do this on your own time. Don’t do this where someone is either paying you or elected you to do something.”
He argues BOE members should be doing what is best for school children.
“I don’t see how [demonstrating] would help that situation,” added Wilson, whose brother was in the Navy, father served in the Army and uncle was wounded in Korea.
“A lot of my family members are involved in the military, police, fire. To take a knee is disrespectful to them. The president doesn’t represent the flag. The people represent the flag,” Wilson added.
Loomis-Davern said she was elected by people who knew she was committed to social justice.
“They didn’t necessarily know I was going to kneel for the national anthem, but the people who know me probably were not surprised, and they support that,” she said.
“At some point, elected officials have to make a decision. The most you can ask is that they are transparent about decisions they make and why they make them. Then people can exercise their right to vote for them or not,” Loomis-Davern said.