Mayor faces revolt after banning Pledge of Allegiance; rogue element recites it anyway, gets ‘one strike’ warning

The mayor of Silverton, Colorado found himself being challenged after unilaterally suspended the practice of saying the Pledge of Allegiance during board meetings.

More and more, the anti-American sentiments of some politicians take center stage in the performance of their duties. Mayor Shane Fuhrman cited “direct and indirect threats” on Monday in justifying the action.

“Due to direct and indirect threats, inappropriate comments in and out of public meetings, and the general divisiveness this is creating in our community, we will not be doing the Pledge of Allegiance during town of Silverton board of trustee meetings,” Fuhrman said, according to KDVR-TV.

Silverton Trustee Molly Barela wasted no time in objecting to the “unilateral” decision.

“We already discussed this as a board, and any other unilateral decisions we need to know about?” the trustee asked.

 

“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,” Fuhrman responded.

Explaining that his decision was made without the board’s opinion, Barela added, “It’s been done for a long time. We all took an oath, and we as a board we decided it would be done.”

Much to the angst of the mayor, during the public comment period of the meeting, an attendee announced that she wanted to recite the pledge, with two board members and a handful of attendees standing and participating.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., shared footage of that moment on Twitter.

“It’s hard to put into words what kind of anti-American disgrace this is,” she stated. “Mayor Fuhrman should resign and purchase a one-way ticket to China where he won’t have [to] worry about hearing the pledge!”

Mayor Fuhrman responded to the rogue pledge to say they were out of order and “if something like that happens again,” he will ask them to leave.

In a later statement, Barela explained to the Fox affiliate that the mayor brought the issue up in April 2020, saying he didn’t want to do the Pledge of Allegiance anymore because it’s not really a thing.

The board voted 4-3 vote to continue the pledge, she said, further explaining that while meeting via Zoom last year the three dissenting members “would just turn off their cameras.”

Now that they are meeting in person, the three officials face scrutiny over why they would choose not to stand and recite the pledge, Barela added.

“Members of the public have told them that they should be ashamed of themselves,” she said. “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.”

She also noted that Fuhrman’s decision came on Flag Day.

As for the mayor claiming it was a First Amendment right issue, the trustee said, “To tell members of the public they are not allowed to say the Pledge of Allegiance during public comment and threaten to have them removed, that it was a one strike [and] you’re out policy, violates every single one of their First Amendment rights.”

The full meeting can be seen below, with Fuhrman’s decision coming in his opening remarks — the rogue pledge being recited comes just after the 5-minute mark:

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