The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
‘We can do better’
Vilified for ‘taking a knee,’ official apologizes, pleads for dialogue
HADDAM — The official at the center of a controversy over First Amendment rights that has exploded into a national debate over patriotism and accusations about dereliction of duty is now offering an olive branch to the community at large.
The uproar was sparked July 16 when Selectwoman Melissa Schlag took a knee while the Pledge of Allegiance was recited at a Board of Selectmen’s meeting.
But an 11-second video, in which Schlag could be heard saying the town is “fascist and racist,” has caused even more bitter criticism, adding fuel to the controversy. Her actions, and public vilification, were thrust onto the national stage during the two weeks since the first meeting.
Then, fresh off a guest appearance on WNPR’s Colin McEnroe Show on Wednesday, “Kneeling as an Act of Protest,” Schlag offered an apology and challenge to her champions and detractors on the “You Live in Haddam If” Facebook page.
Schlag apologized “for making it seem like I thought all of Haddam was racist and fascist. That could not be further from the truth. However,
there are strong veins of fascism (forced patriotism) and racism running deep in Haddam,” she said.
”Obviously every town has racism, but every time I see a confederate flag on a truck ... and hear from residents about their experiences of racism their children had to endure, it breaks my heart,” she said.
“Even on this (Facebook) page I allow comments that I find disgusting. I have been sexually and verbally abused, and berated, and threatened over the past two weeks. This is not Haddam. This is not America. But it can be. We can do better,” Schlag said, asking the community to gather on the page for an open dialogue about racism and respect in Haddam. “We need an intervention. But please, keep it civil, the next generation is watching.”
“I give myself to Haddam to help us be better.”
The footage of Schlag was used during a segment on the national TV show Fox & Friends and then was shared widely.
The remarks captured on video were made to a friend, Schlag said, and, from the beginning, they have been used by Republicans as “a political tool.” Schlag characterized the response to her statement at the end of the public comment section of the meeting as a “verbal stoning.”
State Sen. Art Linares, R-Westbrook, however, said Monday, “People know, whether this would have happened in year one or year six (of his tenure), I would have reacted the same way. I’m not afraid to stand up for what I believe in.”
During the pledge that prefaced the selectmen’s meeting Monday night, Schlag again knelt directly in front of the flag, her hand on her heart, prompting heckling from those in attendance. Three other women then took a knee when Schlag addressed the audience at the conclusion of the public session, turning their backs on her.
The meeting was one of the toughest things she’s had to face in her career as a public servant, Schlag said.
“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. A Vietnam veteran who could barely stand and breathe because of Agent Orange spoke in support of me and was booed and told to leave,” Schlag wrote on Facebook.
Within two hours, 105 people had weighed in.
On Wednesday afternoon, state Rep. Robert Siegrist, R-Haddam, reacted to the video, saying he was outraged and offended, according to a news release.
“These remarks are slanderous, unprofessional, and beneath the office of which she serves,” he said in the statement.
But resident Robin Spencer-Klimaszewski said her adopted now 16-yearold Asian son has faced ridicule and racist comments since kindergarten.
“It’s awful. In elementary school, he was called a Chinese cargo boy, and would come and say to me, ‘but Mom, I’m not even from China,” she said.
“The day after Trump was elected, he went to school and a couple of kids told him, ‘you better start packing your bags, because it’s time to go home and find your longlost family.’ And where are they hearing it? Their parents,” Spencer-Klimaszewski said.
Former selectwoman and current Board of Assessment Appeals member Tanja Moriarty, 50, said of the video that Schlag had just gotten “off an hourlong crucifixion where people were throwing stones at her, then having the townspeople who are booing at a veteran standing up and the crowd telling him to go home.”
“It’s a very interesting time, so if she was venting — she’s human,” Moriarty said, defending her friend.