'Uncomfortable': Seniors banned from pledging allegiance to flag

A senior center whose managers abruptly dropped the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer from the opening of its regular lunch has backtracked because of outrage.

Reporter Todd Starnes said the directors at the Mullis Community Senior Center on San Juan Island in Washington state decided to drop the Pledge and prayer because some newcomers “were uncomfortable” with it.

They told the local San Juan Islander newspaper they wanted to encourage more seniors to participate, since attendance was on a decline.

But those who were attending were upset. They contacted American Legion Post 163 Commander David Holzer, who said his group was more than happy to assist local senior citizens who wanted the Pledge of Allegiance restored, Starnes reported.

Starnes said he was not “terribly surprised by the center’s unpatriotic logic.”

“There has been a concerted effort by the left to eradicate devotion to God and country as I write in my upcoming book, ‘Culture Jihad: How to Stop the Left From Killing a Nation,'” Starnes wrote.

Seattle radio station KIRO reported American Legion members were vilified by the center. One veteran was escorted out of the building by sheriff’s deputies after he brought in a flag and recited the Pledge.

One staffer told Holzer, “You think that the people of Nazi Germany enjoyed saying, ‘Heil Hitler?'”

He explained: “My response to her, besides a dumbfounded look, was, ‘They didn’t have a choice. In this country you do. And you’re taking away everyone’s choice and right of saying the Pledge of Allegiance.'”

As short time later the center backtracked and announced the Pledge would be said at 11:30 before the meal, which starts at 12.

Starnes reported the non-profit legal group First Liberty Institute said “it should be permissible for senior citizens to not only pledge allegiance to the flag, but also pray to the Almighty.”

“These senior citizens should be free to pray together before their meal,” senior counsel Roger Byron told Starnes. “The Supreme Court just last year said, ‘There can be no doubt that the First Amendment protects the right to pray. Prayer unquestionably constitutes the ‘exercise’ of religion.'”

Byron said his team was working with seniors to make sure their rights were protected.

“Ultimately, this is a fight about defending traditional American values, God and Country. And I suspect the fight is far from over,” Starnes said.

Center officials had said the Pledge and prayer were dropped because it was their “duty” to provide “a safe and peaceful environment.”

Officials noticed a decline in participants, and “we discovered that many of the incoming seniors were uncomfortable with an introductory ceremony where the Pledge of Allegiance and prayer were recited.”

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