Colorado Mayor Does Away With the Pledge of Allegiance Due to 'Divisiveness'

How divided have we become as a country?

Well, it appears, so segmented that we can’t agree on being a country.

For evidence, look to the small town of Silverton, Colorado.

Last Monday, the 550-resident area’s mayor, Shane Fuhrman, made an announcement.

He’d surmised something needed to be nixed from public meetings.

As reported by Denver’s Fox31, the mayor addressed the issue at a trustee conference:

“Due to direct and indirect threats, inappropriate comments in and out of public meetings and general divisiveness and issues created in our community, we will not be reciting the Pledge of Allegiance during Town of Silverton trustee meetings.”

And that, these days, is called “America.”

For all the talk of identity, we seem to have lost ours.

To be clear, not everyone was good with the mayoral move.

Count Trustee Molly Barela among that group.

She didn’t appreciate Shane taking matters into his own hands.

Her question at the meeting made that clear:

“We already discussed this as a board. [A]ny other unilateral decisions we need to know about?”

Shane’s response called for proof he couldn’t do it, rather than offering proof he could:

“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.”

What did that mean exactly?

Molly explained to KDVR.

Back in April of 2020, she said, Shane “brought it up that he didn’t want to do the Pledge of Allegiance anymore because it’s not really a thing…”

However, per Molly, the board voted 4-3 to continue pledging.

Purportedly, the three naysayers dodged the oath during the pandemic’s virtual meetings:

“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 (and) the state of Colorado and the town of Silverton if you won’t stand for the pledge? Members of the public have told them…they should be ashamed of themselves.”

Molly’s unimpressed with the mayor’s mono maneuver, and the timing’s a turd:

“I personally didn’t like his unilateral decision, when we as a collective group had already decided over a year ago to continue to do the pledge, I don’t know if it was premeditated to have it done on Flag Day, which we all know…was declared June 14, 1777 by the second continental Congress. Now mayor Shane Fuhrman has made this (a) First Amendment…issue.”

As I wrote at the beginning, it’s a tale of the torn.

On one hand, Silverton’s tiny — it can’t be said to accurately represent the Republic.

On the other, if 550 people can’t come together on coming together, how can 330 million?

To be fair, elsewhere, things are going oppositely.

Take Wisconsin, for instance.

In May, the state assembly passed a measure requiring “The Star-Spangled Banner” before any athletic match held at venues constructed in any part by taxpayer funding.

Speaking on the House floor, AB226 Republican sponsor Tony Kurtz talked relations: