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STEUBENVILLE -- A handful of Vietnam War veterans who were at Tuesday's Steubenville City Council meeting to accept a resolution thanking them for their service and sacrifice walked out without it.
The group, led by retired Marine Sgt. Jack Ernest, took exception to some in the crowd refusing to salute the flag.
"When we see that flag, we see the red as blood," Ernest said immediately after the Pledge of Allegiance, which precedes every council meeting. "I, myself, and the rest of these men saw our fellow soldiers beside us on the battlefield, bleeding, legs and arms missing, disemboweled.
"How do you think we feel when we see someone living in this country, free, refusing to honor the men and women who died to keep you free? You think your freedom is free? It's never free."
Ernest didn't specify who, specifically, he was referring to, but later, 1st Ward Councilwoman Asantewa Anyabwile suggested she was one of them, telling those still in the room it was "unfortunate the veterans left when I had shown them no disrespect whatsoever."
"One of the rights here in the United States is the right to protest," Anyabwile said. "People protest certain things: The protests that are done here by not saluting the flag is a protest of the injustice of some citizens here in the United States. We wouldn't have to have a Fair Housing Month if housing was fair; we wouldn't have to have a 'community' month -- aka minority health month, though I don't like to use that word -- if health practices between races was not in such disparity. We wouldn't have to have protests if a people of color weren't being shot down in the street.
"A silent protest of not saluting the flag is not a slap in the face of those people who walked out," she continued. "It is a silent protest to let folks know if you listen to the words of the pledge it says 'and justice for all,' but there's not justice for all yet. So the silent protest that some of us do is letting folks know we're not accepting the standards there are right now, because there is inequality, there is injustice. People may not want to recognize it, people may not want to see it, but it's still there. And if people want to protest silently and not salute the flag, then it is within our rights to do so."
Second Ward Councilman Tracy McManamon said he was embarrassed, pointing out it was he who invited the veterans to the meeting to recognize "the heroic efforts of these men and women" who'd served in Vietnam.
"I feel very bad we could not honor those men," he said. "We will bring them back again and make sure we do that. ... I feel very badly because we invited (them) to attend. I invited those people, and I'm embarrassed they had to leave."
But 4th Ward Councilman Royal Mayo said his sister served in the military for 23 years, retiring as a colonel, adding, "She said she experienced discrimination every step of the way.
"Everybody doesn't feel the same way because everybody doesn't have the same experience," Mayo said. "But what we have to do is respect where everybody is coming from. It's like the song by Frances Scott Key (the national anthem), blacks don't like that song."
Key, a slaveholder and anti-abolitionist, referenced slaves and their role in the conflict during the anthem's controversial third stanza.
"It's a warning to slaves who fought against slavery, but the rest of America doesn't care how it makes us feel," Mayo said. "We don't like it because it was an attack on us. Everything that's as American as apple pie doesn't always work for blacks. If we're going to embrace everybody and want everybody to get along, then people need to address what hurts us. And the same energy you have fighting us, if you would fight what hurts us it would go away and then we wouldn't have to do it."
Sixth Ward Councilman Mike Hernon said he stands and faces the flag, so, "I don't know who is addressing the flag, who is honoring the flag and who is not."
"I would not presume any member of council is dishonoring the flag or our country," he said. "I think it was Lincoln who said 'Our country is not perfect, but it is perfectible.' There have been tragedies, atrocious tragedies, that have happened, and that's not ever washed away. But the one thing we all swear to uphold and stand by is our flag. It's a symbol of unity, a sign of what our country has done through many years. ... Through dark times it has brought people together. Anybody here who can't stand and honor the flag, that changes my perspective because we are one people, right? And we need to stand. Protesting is great. Fighting injustice, absolutely. But we need unity as a people, 'One nation, under God.'"
Earlier, McManamon had recommended sending a letter to the Vietnam Veterans Association, thanking them for their service and for coming to the meeting and apologizing for the pledge protest. He'd invited his fellow council members to sign it, should they feel so inclined.
"I'm embarrassed, very embarrassed," he said.
Mayor Jerry Barilla also commented after the men filed out, fighting back tears as he reminded the crowd Ernest had been badly wounded in Vietnam.
"He's shared stories of what he went through," Barilla told council. "It's emotional for me to see those men leave here. It's something that breaks my heart."