Civic duty or power play? Orange County rejects call to recite Pledge of Allegiance
Orange County’s commissioners won’t add the Pledge of Allegiance to their meetings but did talk Tuesday about its history and why a public recital is not the right thing to do.
Mebane resident Riley Ruske asked the board last September to start each meeting with the pledge. He and others have led the audience in an impromptu recitation at previous meetings, and Ruske has appeared at several meetings since to repeat his request.
The country’s continued existence “depends on the commitment of its citizens to protect and preserve it, and the foundations upon which it stands,” Ruske told the commissioners Tuesday.
“The words of the pledge not only remind our citizens and government officials of the civic duty of allegiance, but also remind us of the aspiration of achieving liberty and justice for all,” he said. “Meetings of the board of county commissioners are part of their duty to protect and preserve our nation and its foundations.”
Commissioner Earl McKee, who joined Ruske’s petition in February, suggested a compromise.
The board could recite the pledge four time a year when in-person meetings resume, he said, at the first meeting of the year, the last meeting before summer break, the first fall meeting and the end of the calendar year. No one would be required to participate, he said.
“The reason I’m making this motion … is I consider myself very blessed to be living under this system that we live under,” McKee said. “I see no need in doing this every meeting, but I think on special occasions, such as the beginning and end of each term, it would hold more significance than trying to do it every meeting.”
What other local governments do
Several surrounding governments recite the pledge at their board meetings, including the Wake, Chatham and Alamance county commissioners, the Durham City Council, and the Holly Springs Town Council. Raleigh’s City Council said the pledge until meetings went online earlier this year.
But no Orange County government regularly recites the pledge at meetings, although Chapel Hill’s Town Council does on special occasions, such as the annual Veterans Day observance.
Orange County’s commissioners voted 5-2 Tuesday to continue without the pledge. Only McKee and Commissioner Sally Greene supported adding it to meetings.
Reciting the pledge is a way to “reclaim the roots of our democracy and be proud of them,” Greene said. She noted that the pledge’s author, Francis Bellamy, was a Christian socialist minister concerned with the disparities of wealth, labor issues and poverty, and the pro-Confederate and anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish movements of his day.
“I can support this, and the reason is I’ve been thinking about the fact that our democracy really is at risk right now in a way that we never imagined that it would be,” Greene said. “I think it’s a good thing to go back to first principles and say we do pledge allegiance to the flag and to the republic for which it stands, the democratic republic we hold dear.”
‘Divisive power play,’ says one commissioner
Others saw Ruske’s request differently.
“I see this as a divisive power play just to get us to say the Pledge of Allegiance when we’ve been spending a large part of our life actually serving the community, the state and the nation, working on real issues that affect residents in the future,” Commissioner Mark Marcoplos said.
There’s also the concern that reciting the pledge could make some residents uncomfortable or create a fear they will be stigmatized if they have religious or personal reasons for not joining in, Commissioner Mark Dorosin and others said.
“I do feel a great allegiance to this country and its promises of civil rights, racial justice and equality, and I continue to work every day to help it live up to those promises, but that America isn’t a place that requires residents to take compulsory loyalty oaths,” he said.
This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 11:55 AM with the headline "Civic duty or power play? Orange County rejects call to recite Pledge of Allegiance."
