A trustee spouts off about the Constitution showing how clueless he is.
Via Campus Reform:
The Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees President says the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag is “steeped in expressions of nativism and white nationalism.”
In emails obtained exclusively by Campus Reform, the president of the SBCC Board of Trustees, Robert Miller, stated that he decided to “discontinue use of the Pledge of Allegiance” at board meetings because of its history.
Live stream videos of the board’s past several meetings show that the last time members recited the Pledge of Allegiance during a board meeting was Dec. 13. During the Jan. 10 live-streamed meeting, Miller noted at the beginning that it was his first meeting as president of the board. It was also the first meeting since a similar circumstance in summer 2018 that members did not recite the pledge.
“I decided to discontinue use of the Pledge of Allegiance for reasons related to its history and symbolism,” Miller said in an email to Celeste Barber, a former adjunct instructor at SBCC. “I have discovered that the Pledge of Allegiance has a history steeped in expressions of nativism and white nationalism.”
In addition to these reasons, Miller stated that he’d rather pledge his allegiance to the Constitution “instead of a physical object.”
“I also object to the phrase ‘one nation under God,’” Miller said. “The First Amendment not only protects freedom of speech and religion [but] it also expressly prohibits laws that establish a religion. The U.S. Supreme Court has expressly extended those rights to those who express no belief in God. Thus, I disagree with the 1955 act of Congress to add this phrase to the Pledge of Allegiance.”