Watch: Patriots Send a Clear Message After Politician Kneels for Pledge of Allegiance
Residents of a small Connecticut community held a pro-flag rally on Friday in response to a politician kneeling during the Pledge of Allegiance, WTIC-TV reported.
Melissa Schlag, a selectwoman in the town of Haddam, says she knelt to protest the president.
“Where as long as Donald Trump is in the White House and dividing our great nation I will kneel,” Schlag said.
Yes, apparently Schlag’s love of the country she lives in and serves (albeit in a very small role) is contingent upon whether or not her chosen candidate is in the White House. One week after the protest, Haddam was the site of a pro-flag rally by patriots angered over Schlag’s decision.
“Members of the Haddam community laid 1,000 flags near the veterans memorial on the town green in opposition of Schlag’s protest,” WTIC reported.
“I believe that the people that are coming support the flag and the United States of America and it’s as simple as that,” said Ron Annino, a Haddam veteran.
“These are the crosses that we put up on Memorial Day,” Annino said. “I put them out on the green. They’re for all the guys that died from the town of Haddam.”
That, he says, is why he feels so strongly about the pledge — and is so disgusted by Schlag’s protest.
“It goes back to the guys who fought and died and come back horribly wounded,” Annino said.
Nevertheless, speakers at the rally said that it was “not a protest” but that they were “supporting the flag.”
The backlash to Schlag’s demonstration wasn’t just confined to rally members.
“Anywhere but where you work,” said Haddam Second Selectman Larry Maggi, who was in the meeting. “We are paid. It’s not a lot but we are paid. That is not the place to do it.”
“If you want to protest the president. Please don’t do it on my tax dime,” Lori Maggi, wife of Second Selectman Maggi and a member of Haddam’s Economic Development Commission, said.
“Kneeling is not respecting the flag,” local VFW Auxillary President Claudette Sirois said.
Of course, Schlag isn’t going to be stopping her protest anytime soon.
“I will continue to kneel at board of selectmen meeting,” she said in a statement.
“I cannot think of a better place to exercise my rights set forth under the constitution of the United States than a government meeting.”
Well, that’s perfectly fine. Just don’t expect people to take your protest as anything more than it is — a self-important form of thumbing your nose at the taxpayers because your chosen party lost.
Have fun explaining that during your re-election campaign, Ms. Schlag.
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