The mayor of Silverton, Colorado, issued a statement during a trustee meeting saying that he will discontinue recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance at the start of the meetings.
His idea was met with resistance and some of the attendees stood up and recited it loudly during the comment section of the meeting. Even though he tried to interrupt them, more voices joined in.
Once their vociferous declamations ended and they sat down, the mayor said that they were “out of order” and that although there is a one-strike policy, he didn’t ask people to leave.
“But if something like that happens again we will,” the mayor said.
There had been similarly worked-up instances in Silverton when a trustee didn’t want to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
In this most recent case, the mayor declared that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance would create problems, including “divisiveness.”
Right after he said this, Silverton Trustee Molly Barela directed her words towards Fuhrman: “We already discussed this as a board, and any other unilateral decisions we need to know about?”
“If you’d like to find somewhere in the code, something that doesn’t permit me to do this, then I welcome that discussion at our next meetings,” Fuhrman responded.
Barela then claimed more directly that the decision was made without consulting the board.
“It’s been done for a long time. We all took an oath, and we as a board we decided it would be done,” she said.
Barela told Fox 31 in a comment: “Back in April 2020 when the newest board members were seated the mayor brought it up that he didn’t want to do the Pledge of Allegiance anymore because it’s not really a thing, it was a 4/3 vote that we continue to do it. By going back to in person meetings it changes the dynamic compared to what was happening on zoom.”
“While on zoom the three individuals who chose not to say the Pledge of Allegiance would just turn off their cameras now that we’ve gone back to in person meetings members of the general population especially those who are veterans have been questioning why would you run for office and take an oath to uphold the laws of the United States of America the state of Colorado and the town of Silverton if you won’t stand for the pledge,” she said in a statement in part.
The Epoch Times reached out to Fuhrman for comment.
