Mayor, council take the pledge

Published 3:00 pm Saturday, September 16, 2006

It was a familiar sentence, an oath school children learn to recite each day before class.

But uttered before the City Council meeting Wednesday night, the Pledge of Allegiance calmed a mounting storm over its place in local government.

City Hall was packed with residents who had caught wind that some councilors wished to refrain from reciting the Pledge before city meetings.

In emails to each other, councilors called the Pledge “inappropriate” and connected reverence for the American flag to the policies of the Bush Administration.

The cyberspace dialogue incensed war veterans and other islanders who hold the flag as a symbol of national pride and wartime sacrifice.

They gathered in City Hall, many wearing the caps of the American Legion and with fiery speeches at the ready.

Some were then surprised to find the meeting opened with a recitation of the Pledge, followed by an apology.

“After the Fourth of July, Councilman (Bill) Knobloch suggested we recite the Pledge and we all agreed,” said Mayor Darlene Kordonowy. “I’d like to ask that we do that tonight.

“I thought it felt good to do that in unity with you, even if for 30 seconds of (taking) the Pledge.”

Councilman Kjell Stoknes retracted his earlier opposition to the Pledge shortly after he, the council and the entire audience held their right hands over their hearts and recited the oath.

“As you know, some people initially preferred not to do the Pledge,” he told the crowd. “That was mainly because we have not done the pledge for the last 13 years.”

Stoknes acknowledged that the Pledge “was very emotional for many people” and stressed that personal political leanings “have nothing to do with the Pledge.”

Numerous supporters of the Pledge addressed the council, many of whom had served in the U.S. military.

“That flag means an awful lot to us,” said American Legion state commander and Vietnam War veteran Charles Kelley, who traveled from Olympia to speak to the council.

“The Pledge of Allegiance to a flag on the surface sounds really silly, I’ll admit. But the flag is a symbol, like a wedding band or how a flaming red light is a warning. It’s a symbol of what many of us hold dear.”

For Kelley, the Pledge honors American soldiers “willing to step up and leave their blood in the mud all across the globe.”

The Pledge also represents the U.S.’s open form of representative democracy, which island resident Fred Scheffler argued the council failed to consider in its emailed discussions.

“You (were elected) to do the business of Bainbridge Island, not inject your personal prejudices,” said Scheffler, who serves as adjutant of American Legion Post No. 172 of Bainbridge Island. He urged the council to make policy decisions in public meetings, “not in the nether-regions of cyberspace.”

The council’s recent discussions over the Pledge started two weeks ago when Councilman Jim Llewellyn polled his fellow councilors over whether or not to recite the Pledge at meetings, as had been proposed by Knobloch in late June.

“…My concept of ‘God’ is probably different than yours thereby making that reference inappropriate,” Llewellyn wrote on Aug. 30. “I would prefer to keep our agendas as they have been without impromtu insertions of the Pledge of Allegiance.”

He followed up with a second email stating:

“P.S. If George Bush needs to wrap himself in the flag I’m sure as hell not going to pledge allegiance to THAT flag.”

Councilman Nezam Tooloee gave his “complete support” for nixing the Pledge from council meetings.

“I don’t need to flaunt my love for my adopted country at every council meeting,” wrote Tooloee, who was born in Iran. “Separation of church and state is a founding principle of this country. I like to keep it that way.”

Stoknes entered the email discussion with the comment, “I feel much like you do and for many of the same reasons, plus a few more, and ‘do not’ want to do a pledge of allegiance before each council meeting.”

Tooloee did not attend Wednesday’s council meeting. Llewellyn made no public comments, but participated in the Pledge.

‘Too charged’

On Friday, Llewellyn said the council had agreed to postpone a discussion about whether to recite the Pledge at council meetings until after the general election in November.

“It’s too charged an atmosphere to begin debating something that shouldn’t have been debated,” Llewellyn said. “In our little island, our little bastion of liberalism, it was decided (we’d get) too much attention on an issue that doesn’t relate and that some would get tainted…

“It draws attention to the island, and that’s counterproductive in an election season, no matter who’s running.”

Llewellyn hopes future council decisions will narrow the Pledge’s recitation to special events and national holidays, rather than every council meeting.

“None of us are against taking (the Pledge), but how many times is enough?” he asked. “Every meeting? Some of us think that’s unnecessary. It’s just like taking marriage vows or an oath of office every two weeks.”

Despite Llewellyn’s concern that the matter could become a political issue in state campaigns, Scheffler believes the Pledge should not be considered under the sole ownership of one party or political persuasion.

“I come from a dysfunctional family, one of Republicans and Democrats,” he said. “They would take umbrage that the flag had been ceded to one party.”

While the Pledge is, for some, entwined with modern conservative politics, its roots sprouted in the soil of the 19th-century American socialist movement.

The Pledge’s first draft was written by socialist author and Baptist minister Francis Bellamy in 1892.

He composed the pledge for Youth’s Companion, a national family-oriented magazine in conjunction with the publication’s campaign to sell American flags to public schools.

Bellamy’s pledge stated: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

The phrase “under God” was added to the Pledge by the U.S. Congress in 1954, though the work of Presbyterian ministers and President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Councilman Bill Knobloch, who had proposed reciting the Pledge at council meetings in late June, said he was relieved the council rose for the flag and will continue to do so.

“I’m very pleased it was resolved in a rational manner,” he said. “I’m surprised the subject got to this point, but I’m glad it’s now a permanent part of the agenda.”

Knobloch was motivated to call for the Pledge after witnessing its use during the meetings of other city governments.

“The atmosphere, after the Pledge, (it) felt very good,” he said. “It sets a tone for us all, that we’re here to serve the community as best we can.”