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Rather than voting to send the item to the full RTM for consideration, members issued a “no” vote and moved on with the agenda.

A petition for the proposal received 50 signatures from Darien electors, which placed the item on the agenda for Monday.

In her opening remarks, Marks, a former member of the Board of Selectmen, said she observed the “positive impact of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance” at the start of each meeting. The BOS is the only government body in town that recites the pledge before its meetings.

Marks noted that the saying of the pledge before each RTM meeting would be optional. She urged fellow RTM members to support the proposal, saying the pledge is recited before government meetings in other towns, and at the state and federal levels.

The pledge also pays respects to veterans, Marks said.

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“The pledge can unite us to a more powerful common good within the RTM, our town, across Connecticut and the United States,” Marks said. “Some might argue that such a pledge is unnecessary or untimely, considering the highly politicized setting in this country. To those arguments, I remind my fellow RTM members it’s for those very reasons that we should take this opportunity now to unite and lead our community in the direct expression of our shared values.”

Several RTM members spoke against Marks’ proposal.

Frank Kemp, a member of the RTM Rules Committee, reiterated some of his points from February, saying that there are other ways to show patriotism, like volunteering with children, donating to charity, or testifying at a public hearing.

Kemp said Marks’ proposal encouraged “cheap patriotism.”

“I don’t believe we need to attest our patriotism on a routine basis by rote as if we were at a ballgame or middle school,” Kemp said, noting that he has received pushback on social media for his stance during the February Rules Committee meeting.

“I pray that anyone who may join me in disapproving this motion will not be relegated as being unpatriotic,” he said.

Frank Adelman of District VI said “this sort of performative patriotism in this resolution is really ugly nationalism,” and he called it “coercive.”

“There’s nothing wrong with the pledge when it’s freely offered, and there’s nothing wrong with teaching it to young children as part of civic education. But we’re all adults here, we’re not children, and we’ve already all sworn an oath when we joined this body,” Adelman said. “More conformist pledges are not going to make for better group decisions.”

Christine Castles of District IV said she had been in favor of reciting the pledge, but changed her mind as Monday’s meeting went on.

“Just hearing this meeting, you can hear the divisiveness. I think we need to avoid that so we can work together,” Castles said.

Castles noted that all RTM meetings are on camera, and if a member is seen reciting the pledge without enthusiasm for whatever reason, or they’re not reciting it at all, they could be viewed as being unpatriotic.

Rachel Taylor of District VI supported Marks’ proposal and called it “a very simple, elegant, traditional… way to unify” the RTM. She said she took issue with previous speakers’ comments.

“If we can’t unify and understand that the flag represents all of us, with liberty and justice for all, if we can’t feel comfortable saying that on an optional basis, I don’t really understand that,” Taylor said.

Ed Washecka of District III said he couldn’t see how the flag was a partisan issue.

“It’s not Republican, it’s not Democrat. If you’re American, and I recognize not everyone who lives in this town is, you should not have trouble pledging allegiance to the flag that is behind you,” he said.

A motion to table the item indefinitely was brought by Tom Moore of District III.

You can view the entire June 17 RTM meeting on demand on Darien TV79.

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