Minnesota city’s ban on Pledge of Allegiance receiving citizens’ backlash

Politicians in a city in Minnesota may soon regret its unanimous vote to end the recitation of the traditional Pledge of Allegiance during the opening of the city council meetings after facing major backlash not only from Republicans but also from Democrats and Independents. .

While avoiding national news coverage, the St. Louis Park City Council unanimously voted on June 17, 2019, to change the rules so that the pledge would no longer be said before the start of every session in an effort to serve a more “diverse community.”

“We concluded that in order to create a more welcoming environment to a diverse community we’re going to forgo saying the Pledge of Allegiance before every meeting,” said the Democratic Party majority on the council.

Minnesota’s demographic makeup has significantly changed over the last couple of decades. Refuges from countries such as Somalia — predominately Muslims — Latinos (Mexico, Central America), and other Third-World Nations have poured into Minnesota without assimilating with the American population. The city currently has a population of more than 42,000 people.

“Rather than encouraging or mandating language requirements and other acts of participating in the American society, the Democratic Party purposely invites division, resentment and hostility in order to control the votes,” said former narcotics officer Terry Longiness. “The Democrats want power. Period. All of their tears are theatrics geared towards getting total control of all three branches of the U.S. government,” he added.

Council Member Tim Brausen said before the vote, “If we have an appropriate opportunity, if we have a boy scout color guards or others in attendance or if its a special occasion we will consider using the pledge of allegiance before the meetings.”

In a matter of only minutes, the politicians voted 5-0 in favor of the amendment to proceedings.

Council member Anne Mavity, who sponsored the rules change, told local reporters that she doesn’t feel saying the pledge is necessary, especially for non-citizens. “Not everyone who does business with the city or has a conversation is a citizen,” she said. However, not everyone was happy with the change.

“Can not believe one person didn’t oppose this. The citizens who voted these people in should be embarrassed and ashamed of the councilmen and themselves,” another person chimed in. St. Louis Park Mayor Jake Spano took to Twitter Thursday to announce that the council would be revisiting the issue during the next meeting on July 8, 2019.

“Historically, when a decision is made by the council, it’s over and we move on but after hearing from more people than I can count in the last day (many admittedly not from SLP), I asked my colleagues to revisit this decision and a majority of them agreed,” his tweet read. Spano also said he was “out of the state” when the vote took place and that he was “not a fan of the proposal.

Veterans and other activists are still planning to attend the next city council meeting on July 15th to make sure the city council does reconsider the pledge.

“Therefore, MORVets and The Flag Brigade-Minnesota invite all patriots and veterans to attend the SLP City Council’s meeting on Monday, July 15th. Our current plan is to stand up just prior to the meeting and mass-recite the pledge. This is the United States of America; a Constitutional republic. At any official municipal meeting in our nation, they should recite the Pledge of Allegiance. One of our national mottos is “E pluribus unum” – Out of many, one. The Saint Louis Park mayor and City Council *must* learn this lesson, and not the opposite.”