Guy Page: Windsor Selectboard refuses to say Pledge of Allegiance

By Guy Page

Black Lives Matter is an aspirational phrase. Supporters insist on saying it rather than the more generic “All Lives Matter” because they believe too many fellow Americans think black lives don’t matter.

Yet for precisely the same reason — its aspirational nature — the Pledge of Allegiance was tossed into the wastebasket of history this week by the Windsor Selectboard. Board members say there can be no “liberty and justice for all” until “black lives matter.” So they’ve stopped saying the pledge. As Selectboard member Christopher Goulet told WCAX reporter Adam Sullivan after the board’s decision this week, “I try to live by both ideas, so at a point, it becomes very difficult to me in my personal life to recite words that fairly obviously are not being upheld by our government.”

Guy Page

Maybe Goulet and colleagues are just trying to show consistency and support for the flagrant act of injustice and inequality perpetrated this week by Windsor’s school board. It fired Windsor School Principal Tiffany Riley for exercising her freedom of speech in questioning on her Facebook page aspects of Black Lives Matter. (Yes, she’s suing.) Perhaps Goulet is attempting to justify his town’s school officials’ very public expulsion of Ms. Riley from the community of “all.”

“Liberty and justice for all?” Not in our town.

Pledge, like Professor Harold Hill said in “The Music Man,” starts “with a capital P — which rhymes with T — which stands for Trouble!” At this very moment a subcommittee of right-thinking Windsor townsfolk may be rewriting the Pledge to say “liberty and justice for all except those who question Black Lives Matter, or any other cause we consider more important than the Bill of Rights.”

But no, probably not. I doubt the Windsor Selectboard and school board are in subversive cahoots. They’re just being blissfully inconsistent. “I insist you say Black Lives Matter because it is aspirational. And I refuse to recite the Pledge of Allegiance because it is aspirational.”

One wonders if other parts of the Pledge stick in the Windsor Selectboard’s collective craw. Maybe vowing “allegiance” to one nation — and such a racist, capitalist one at that! — rather than to the global community of persons? Perhaps rather than “under God,” they’d prefer “under Gaia.”

To find out, someone should recite the Pledge during the public comments section of the next Windsor Selectboard meeting. Under the circumstances would that speech, like Tiffany Riley’s, be deemed racist? Inquiring fans of George Orwell need to know.

After the meeting, WCAX reporter Sullivan caught up with Pledge supporter Thomas Mcleod, an African-American: “The Marine Corps veteran was visibly emotional and seemed to be personally offended by the select board’s vote. ‘All that we did and all that we gave was for naught? Are you kidding me right now? So yeah, we should not just pledge allegiance to the flag but live it,’ McLeod said.”

Supporters of the Pledge say of course it is aspirational — it reminds every schoolchild, Town Meeting participant, legislator, and Selectboard member that being an American is about striving for “liberty and justice for all.”

Apparently the Selectboard of the not-too-distant Town of Hartford is considering a similar ban on the Pledge. This too is fitting, because Hartford (aka White River Junction) also has been unwilling to defend “liberty and justice for all” when challenged by ideologues. At a Selectboard meeting last August, an immigrant rights activist called a Black selectboard member a “coon” for [again] showing insufficient enthusiasm for a pro-illegal immigration ordinance. This awful racial epithet went unchallenged at the meeting and virtually unreported in the press, except by Vermont Daily.

Eight score years ago, Americans enslaved Mcleod’s ancestors. Eighty years ago, we interned Japanese citizens. Seventy years ago, we blacklisted leftists. These injustices succeeded for a time because loud, powerful, misguided Americans believed the end justified the means, and — even worse — quiet, fearful, misguided Americans let it happen. A coalition of the timid and the self-righteous robbed a minority of their freedom. When Americans at long last repented of breaking their national Commandments, they humbly honored those who had called them back to the Bill of Rights.

As you read this, Tiffany Riley is fighting for her job. VTrans highway workers are told by our governor to erase anti-BLM graffiti but leave pro-BLM graffiti untouched. Last week, a quiet, peaceful crowd trying to honor Vermont’s police heroes was shouted down and called racist by an angry, pro-BLM mob. And painting “Liberty and Justice for All” next to “Black Lives Matter” in the street in front of the Vermont State House this month was rejected by the Montpelier City Council; one councilor said the phrase is just too “aspirational.”

Sixty-six years ago ardently anti-communist Sen. Ralph Flanders of Vermont opposed blacklisting Sen. Joe McCarthy because he trampled on others’ rights. He aspired to uphold the Constitution while many cowered in fear as our nation’s leaders, press and much of the population sought to deny God-given rights to their fellow Americans.

When it really counted, the senator from Springfield — like McLeod — insisted on reciting and practicing “liberty and justice for all.” When America stops preaching “liberty and justice for all,” pretty soon it will stop practicing it as well. Can we not aspire to both?

Read more of Guy Page’s reports. Vermont Daily is sponsored by True North Media.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Paul Sableman

19 thoughts on “Guy Page: Windsor Selectboard refuses to say Pledge of Allegiance

  1. Perspective: We are in Fort McHenry…
    Posted on August 1, 2020 by sundance
    — “The battle of Fort McHenry was a critical point in the War of 1812. Many people know that our national anthem stemmed from the valiant defense of Fort McHenry by American troops who refused to concede Baltimore harbor and withstood 27 hours of continual bombardment by British naval forces beginning Sept 13, 1814. The short story is HERE”

    Two-hundred-six years later, there is a lesson to be learned.
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/08/01/perspective-you-are-in-fort-mchenry/

  2. Below, reference is made to school principle Tiffany Riley, who has been unjustifiably assaulted by the Mount Ascutney School Board. She was and remains a victim of the School Board and it’s “cancel culture”.

    Here’s a direct quote from “The Hill” about the “cancel culture” and its impact on those targeted:

    “Former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss likened cancel culture to “social murder” on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” on Friday night, arguing it isn’t about criticism but “punishment.”

    “We’re used to criticism. Criticism is kosher in the work that we do,” said Weiss, who resigned from The New York Times last month in a public letter to publisher A.G. Sulzberger.

    “Criticism is great. What cancel culture is about is not criticism. It is about punishment. It is about making a person radioactive. It is about taking away their job,” Weiss told Maher. “The writer Jonathan Rauch [of The Atlantic] called it social murder. And I think that’s right.”

    The above quote perfectly fits what has happened to Tiffany Riley at the hands of the School Board intent on doling out punishment.

    As Bari Weiss stated……The cancel culture”is about making a person radioactive. It is about taking away their job,”…….This is exactly what School Board has done to Tiffany Riley.

    The School Board must answer for its actions and pay the price for the damage inflicted.

    https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/510115-bari-weiss-rip-cancel-culture-as-social-murder-on-bill-maher-show

  3. .”What a disgraceful, ignorant group. You have zero understanding of what the pledge stands for. You are pledging to the flag of this great nation, and to the REPUBLIC for which it stands. ONE NATION.. UNDER GOD…..For LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL. RED, YELLOW, BLACK OR WHITE.. if you disrespect that flag then you disrespect EVERYTHING IT STANDS FOR AND EVERYONE IN THIS REPUBLIC. Now, as you have done that let’s see you come up with more than just words..let’s see what actual ACTION ITEMS you will commit to make a difference for your so called cause of BLM.. what are you going to do in your community? Find the injustices and implement solutions? Or are you all just talk and show? Let’s see your plans and time lines for your action items. You might start with understanding the movement, then having a focus group with the blacks in your community, find out what their concerns are, what their expectations are, gather statistics, get them involved and come to some conclusions, create a partnership for solutions. Then get to work. Without that you are just another group of so called leaders who do nothing but further the hate and divide of people as you destroy this country..The country that you will hand over to future generations. Here is to the flag I love….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2IXfuvPUhE
    Now stand for that flag and do your job..”. You do not unite thru acts of division.

  4. I think this is a violation of the oath of office that they have to sign. Remove them for being commies. — this state needs a constitutional change to allow recall and referendum to survive.

  5. This reasoning is preposterous, last time I checked, “all” is rather inclusive. It even allows blacks to participate. Further “all” is in the Pledge Allegiance also includes blacks. No wonder the towns and cities in Vermont run by Dems/Libs/Progs are so screwed up. They always have their eyes
    on the hole in the donut. Truly sad.

  6. It sounds like Hartford and Windsor have a couple of upstarts on their Select boards.

  7. Vermont is one of the Whitest states in the country- is there nothing else going on there to pay attention to?
    How many Black people are in Vermont- and how many people are out of work there?
    How many people are hungry?
    How many people are going to be screwed because they can’t pay the rent? the Mortgage?
    How many people are paralyzed with fear thanks to the media and won’t go back to work in the schools?
    Don’t Vermonters in a Giant Mess Matter?

    Think about it.
    People are falling for the Kabuki Theater show and the Fund Raiser.
    This is all a huge distraction so that the people are not paying attention to the things that they actually should be paying attention too and then demanding they get dealt with.
    The things that are very serious issues and these are the things that are the result of Failings of Leadership.
    Wow, imagine if these things all got solved and the people that messed things all up were held accountable?
    Yikes, we can’t have that.
    “Look over there, A Squirrel!”

  8. Honestly, I have no problem with them not saying the pledge of allegiance.

    I wouldn’t pledge my allegiance to this country at this point considering the state it’s in. If this country is for punishing law-abiding citizens (consider them “stock owners” of an enterprise) and rewarding, nay, deifying criminals.

    If cops and judges and legislators want respect, they need to earn it. By standing up to lefty mobs. So far, they haven’t done anything to earn the respect.

    I pay my prop taxes because I don’t know any other way to avoid having my property seized. Not because I like what’s being done with the money.

  9. So where would these people rather live? Makes me a bit embarrassed to give my birthplace. Filled with willful ignorance. I do wonder how many are transplants that came to Vermont to make it their utopia, which has become a nightmare to the rest of us … some of us who even with very deep Vermont roots packed up our families and small businesses and moved to places that are far more like the real Vermont than today’s Vermont largely governed by very confused people, if not insane people. In the end, these people were elected in free and fair elections, so they are the voice of the voters in Windsor. Just hard to imagine Windsor has gotten that confused. I know the public schools were real bad back when my older siblings attended Windsor High, so I guess that has finally yielded its fruit.

    • You’ve truly outlined the problem, we have 2-3 generations that have been indoctrinated. We have good teachers, but they are told what to teach…..socialist dogma preparing our students to be good little worker bees in the collective.

      • If the teachers were truly ‘good’, they’d refuse to teach socialist dogma to innocent children.

        • It’s what they too were taught. My bet, 90%+ teachers do not understand the difference between a republic and a democracy. My bet is this statistic holds true for our state too.

          If you even question the tactics of an organization that spreads hate division and is a massive money laundering set up, you will be fired, ask the principle. How many teachers do you think will speak up only to loose their job?

          That was a public hanging for every state employee to take notice of, fall in line or lose your job.

          This is the precise reason we have privacy on voting.

          • *Facts* If they are as described by your comment:
            “It’s what they too were taught. My bet, 90%+ teachers do not understand the difference between a republic and a democracy. My bet is this statistic holds true for our state too.”

            If so they have no business teaching and no they are not “good teachers” but breathtakingly ignorant lol

            My bet: they sure do know and follow the script to keep job but still does not make them ‘good teachers’.

            One daughter home-schools. Went to childs former teacher she and husband were friends with and asked if they could purchase classroom books. He said “you don’t want them – they’re not very good besides we’re using pamphletes there are no hardcover books (at least not in his classroom) quite an eyeopener.

  10. Black Lives Matter ” was ” an aspirational phrase , but was kidnapped by Antifa,
    what a shame……………

    “All Lives Matter”, well except for the blacks in Chicago, NYC and other major cities
    that don’t care about the daily ” bloodletting”………………disgusting !!

    If the BLM entourage of protestors really cared, they be protesting in these cities saving
    lives and that includes children.

    And now we have this pathetic liberal selectboard showing just how liberal they really
    are ………….. wake up people vote these fools out !!

    Love it or leave it, there are plenty off socialist countries they fools will fit in !!!

  11. Is Tiffany Riley asking for donations for her legal expenses? If so, do you know how donations can be made?

  12. It appears the select board is making things worse instead of better.
    If I was their manager they would all be fired.

  13. Well put – thanks for the journalistic integrity which appears to have vanished from VT media and beyond.

Comments are closed.