The St. Louis Park City Council (Minnesota) has unanimously decided to do away with the Pledge of Allegiance because they fear it "intimidates' immigrants and they want to make a "more welcoming environment."
How on earth could our pledge, which declares allegiance to our great country, offend or intimidate a person who wants to be a citizen here? If they are coming to our country to live, then they should have absolutely no problem with assimilating!
"We've had some racial equity initiatives going on in the city of St. Louis Park of awhile where we're trying to get more diverse communities and historically less engaged communities to come and participate in our public process," Councilman Tim Brausen said, "Given the current Washington politics that are going on now, there's a lot of people that are afraid of our government, and we worry about that."
"We all love our country dearly, and we demonstrate that by our service as elected officials all the time," Councilwoman Anne Mavity added, "I want to make sure that we are welcoming to everyone in our community, and so I just felt that was unnecessary component to include every single week in our work."
"I hope it's not too controversial," Brausen concluded, "Our community tends to be a very welcoming and increasingly diverse community, and we believe our citizens will understand. I don't think we're going to be any less welcoming by not starting our meeting out with the standard ritual."
Well his hoping is not going to get him anywhere. Any red blooded American (this includes natural born and those who have joined our country as a citizen) should be outraged at this absurdity.
With a 5-0 vote, the new policy is expected to go into effect July 15.
