Veterans Advocate Rips Councilwoman for Not Saying Pledge
During two separate Memorial Day ceremonies, a prominent veterans’ advocate harshly criticized a Peekskill councilwoman for her stance not to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
William Nazario, a Lance Corporal in the Marines during the Vietnam War, a Purple Heart recipient and chairman of the Cortlandt Hudson Valley Veterans Committee, first let his feelings known Friday about Councilwoman Vanessa Agudelo at the Muriel Morabito Community Center in Cortlandt.
“How dare she? She not only disrespected me but everyone who has ever put on a uniform to fight for the freedoms we enjoy, for those who shed blood for this nation, for those missing in action,” Nazario said to thunderous applause from fellow veterans.
“I don’t care what anyone says about this country. It is by far the best in the world,” he continued. “If it’s so bad, I’m not stopping you from leaving. Freedom is not free.”
On Monday, at Monument Park in Peekskill, this time with Agudelo standing about 10 feet away, Nazario again lambasted the first-year Democratic elected official, maintaining in her position she is held to a higher standard.
“This is not the message we want to send to our young people. I consider it an unpatriotic cancer not to recite the Pledge of Allegiance,” he remarked. “This is something that has to be stopped before it gets any further. I feel disrespected. I will not stand for it.”
Agudelo was first openly taken to task about her stance at an April 23 Peekskill Common Council meeting by outspoken resident Leesther Brown and also was criticized by former Mayor Frank Catalina in a Facebook post.
After Monday morning’s Memorial Day ceremony, Agudelo, who politely clapped for Nazario when he spoke, said it wasn’t the day to address the issue about the Pledge of Allegiance.
“He has every right to his opinion,” she said. “I appreciate his service and everything he has done.”
The only detailed remarks Agudelo has made concerning her reasoning for refraining from the Pledge of Allegiance were in an email last month to Examiner Media, in which she stated she was “a proud member of the Hudson Valley Democratic Socialists of America and a proud environmentalist.”
“My reason for respectfully refraining from saying the Pledge of Allegiance is not because I don’t respect the values this country stands for, it is because of our country’s failure to truly uphold them I,” Agudelo stated. “I have the utmost respect for our service women and men, both overseas and in the states, and I have a deep appreciation for all the sacrifices they have had to make. I do not think our country does enough to address the many challenges our veterans face after coming home from war nor is our country transparent enough about the hundreds, even thousands of lives lost fighting wars that most Americans do not or have not agreed with.”
“There is also this level of unquestionable loyalty and mindless conformity in reciting the pledge on such a consistent basis that makes me personally feel uncomfortable,” she continued. “Many people do not know that our pledge was originally written by a socialist in 1892, that there have been several versions of our pledge since its creation, or that the “under God” was not added until almost a century after, used as a political ploy during the Cold War. Most countries in Europe don’t even have a pledge of allegiance or have discontinued its use. This speaks volumes.”
Rick has more than 40 years’ experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, running the gamut from politics and crime to sports and human interest. He has been an editor at Examiner Media since 2012. Read more from Rick’s editor-author bio here. Read Rick’s work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/pezzullo_rick-writer/
