Haddam Official Kneels During Pledge of Allegiance: Report

HADDAM, CT — Haddam selectwoman Melissa Schlag has spoken up after kneeling during the Pledge of Allegiance at a recent Board of Selectmen meeting.

According to a letter posted Friday to her Facebook page, Schlag "took a knee" during the board's July 16 meeting for the "first time in [her] life" in protest of President Donald Trump's recent meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland.

The action of "taking a knee" stems from the controversial decision by some NFL players to kneel during the National Anthem before a game, a form of protest that some, including Trump, believe to be unpatriotic and disrespectful toward U.S. service members.

In the letter, Schlag explained her reasoning in greater detail and cited additional reasons, including "extreme sorrow that immigrant children are being kept in cages" and women's rights issues.

"I knelt out of extreme sorrow for our country, because earlier that day, the president of the United States, Donald J. Trump, sat down with a murderous dictator, Vladimir Putin," Schlag said in the letter. "I knelt out of extreme sorrow for our country, that the leader of our great nation rejected the advice and findings of all American intelligence agencies and would rather support the lies of a murderous dictator."

Schlag also said she now felt compelled to kneel because she thought she needed to send a message.

"I have reached a point in my life where I feel I need to send the message by kneeling," Schlag said, "that none of this is okay and all of this is as unpatriotic as it can get and the antithesis of what America stands for."

She also said she would continue to kneel "as long as Donald J. Trump is the president of the United States."

"If you wish to lecture about being unpatriotic, that is your right," Schlag said. "My question to all those who take offense to my choice to kneel, who are you to decide what I should or should not do, and under what authority do you decided what is sacred and what is not?"

According to WTNH News 8, the town's First Selectwoman, Lizz Milardo, released a statement calling Schalg's protest a "selfish act of attention" that did not belong in a town meeting. She also said she was "not surprised" by Schalg's actions and praised Haddam's "long and proud history of veterans."

Republican State Senator Art Linares also released a statement, urging Schlag to "immediately apologize to Haddam residents" offended by the protest, News 8 reported.

Schlag's letter can be read in full on Facebook.

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