[Vision2020] City Council and the Pledge

[Phil Nisbet]

Melynda

We do have a right to know the why's and wherefores of even so much as their 
singing the state song or refusing to see it sung.  They are public 
officials, elected by us to represent our interests.

John has stated his reason for objection to the saying of the pledge, that 
he sees it becoming stale through rote usage.  You bring up a valid reason 
of a Quaker who is required to forgo making pledges of that sort.

As was mentioned, the Pledge has been recited before every meeting since 11 
September 2001.  The council deciding to change that practice right after an 
election suggests that there is a reason that the majority of the elected 
officials had for halting the practice.  It is not unreasonable for the 
public to wonder or to ask that those reasons be made clear.

As I noted, for all we know the disagreement with the pledge could be 
something which is not reasonable.  I recall that members of the Order, the 
violent Neo-Nazi group spawned by Butler's whacked out followers, refused to 
say the pledge based on their hate of many of its ideas, which included 
liberty and justice for all.  It would be nice to know that such things are 
not the reason for any of our council members refusing the pledge.  (I would 
note to you that we used the fact that certain Order members as members of 
the American Legion refused to say the pledge, so the Cheney Post required 
them to retake the oath to uphold and defend the Constitution and when they 
refused, ejected them for membership.)


Phil Nisbet


>From: Melynda Huskey <melyndahuskey at earthlink.net>
>Reply-To: Melynda Huskey <melyndahuskey at earthlink.net>
>To: Phil Nisbet <pcnisbet1 at hotmail.com>, johnd at moscow.com
>CC: vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: RE: [Vision2020] City Council and the Pledge
>Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2006 22:13:17 -0800 (GMT-08:00)
>
>Is saying the Pledge of Allegiance actually a governmental matter?  Did the 
>citizens of Moscow decide that the Pledge should be said at City Council 
>meetings? When?  And why not sing the national anthem?  The state song?  
>The MHS fight song?  (Do we have a city anthem?)
>
>There are several religious denominations, including my own, the Quakers, 
>which do not condone the use of such pledges.  Perhaps one of the new 
>council members belongs to one of them?
>
>I much prefer that the Council not employ an empty form of words to open 
>their meetings:  we'll judge their allegiances by their actions, not by 
>their recitation of a set formula.  "Liberty and justice for all" don't 
>magically appear because we said the words; pledging our faithfulness to a 
>flag doesn't make us good citizens.
>
>
>Melynda Huskey
>
>

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