After Retaliation for Objecting To BLM Flag Flying Over War Memorial, Veterans Group Restored to Organizing Memorial Day Parade
Follow up to prior story: After almost 70 years, the Barrington (RI) United Veterans Council was stripped of its parade duties after objecting to the Town Council flying the BLM flag over the War Memorial. Now their rightful and historical duties have been restored. A small victory for sanity and tradition.
Perhaps this is a sign that local politics are returning to sanity after the post-George Floyd frenzied purge of dissenting voices.
One of those purged voices we covered was in Barrington, Rhode Island, where Legal Insurrection Foundation is based. For almost 70 years, the Barrington United Veterans Council (BUVC) organized the Memorial Day Parade. The parade is still a big deal in town.
That all came to a screeching halt when, in 2020, BUVC objected to the Town Council flying the BLM flag over the Barrington War Memorial, which was maintained by BUVC. In the frenzied politics of the day, that led to retribution, with BUVC being removed from its historical role organizing the Memorial Day Parade. It was vindictive, petty, and an abuse of power — pretty much symbolic of the treatment of anyone who didn’t take a knee.
We covered the story in depth in March 2022, Veterans Group Alleges Retaliation For Opposing Flying BLM Flag Over Barrington (RI) Veterans Memorial:
On March 7, 2022, the Barrington, Rhode Island, Town Council voted to have the Town Manager organize the 2022 Memorial Day Parade replacing the Barrington United Veterans Council, which had organized Memorial Day parades for 68 consecutive years (excluding 2020-2021 when the parade was canceled due to Covid restrictions).
The Veterans Council says it had no prior notice, was not consulted, and alleges retaliation by the Town Council after the Veterans Council and its leader Ret. Lt. Col. Paul Dulchinos vigorously opposed the flying of a Black Lives Matter flag and other political cause flags on the town flagpole at Town Hall, above the Veterans Memorial. That conflict, led by Dulchinos, rocked the town for over a year and continues to reverberate. Dulchinos, who served as the parade Master of Ceremonies for the past several years, was replaced by Frank “Scott” Douglas, a Naval War College Instructor who spoke out publicly in support of the Town Council’s decision to fly the BLM flag.
Dulchinos, in an email to Veterans Council members, asserted, among other things: “This appears to be retribution for the BUVC having previously taken a stance against flying a BLM flag over its Veterans Memorial.” The Town Council denies that, but the sequence of events and presently-known documentation make a plausible suggestion of viewpoint retaliation ….
Read the whole post, it documents the history and the events leading up to the coup that displaced BUVC from its role as organizer of the Memorial Day Parade.
The elections of 2022 brought changes to Barrington. Two Independents won election to the school committee, which now is moderate (one moderate Democrat, two liberal Democrats, and two moderate Independents). At the town council level, two strong supporters of flying the BLM flag over the War Memorial and backing removal of BUVC didn’t run for reelection. The Democrats retain complete control of the council, but there appears to be at least a 3-person moderate majority.
And moderation and a respect for history led to restoration of the BUVC to its Memorial Day Parade duties. The Barrington Times reports:
The Barrington Town Council voted 3-1 to return organizational duties for the Memorial Day Parade to the Barrington United Veterans Council.
Council members spent more than an hour debating the topic during Monday night’s meeting, and eventually settled on a motion calling for the town manager and BUVC to collaborate on the parade, and also make a coordinated effort to invite others to participate in the planning process. Specifically, the local veterans organization and the town manager will jointly reach out to all veterans in town and the individuals who organized last year’s parade….
Paul Dulchinos, President of BUVC, provided the following statement to Legal Insurrection:
Monday night at the monthly Town Council Meeting the Barrington Town Council voted to reinstate the Barrington United Veterans Council as lead planning organization for the Town’s Annual Memorial Day Parade. This restored a 6 decade uninterrupted tradition in which the BUVC planned and executed all of the Town’s Veterans Memorial Observances and Events per its TC recognized 1954 Chater.
As part of the resolution to restore its lead, the BUVC agreed to reach out, invite and work with those that helped plan the Town’s parade last year after the BUVC had been stripped of its leadership role following a contentious two years where the BUVC had openly expressed opposition to the Town Council’s decision to fly controversial, unofficial partisan political banners under the US Flag at the Town Hall over a Veterans Memorial.
The BUVC was supportive of this caveat as their membership has always been open to any Veteran who resides in town and has served his country honorably. In addition, the BUVC has never prohibited any community group or organization from participating in the town’s annual Memorial Day in the 66 years that it conducted a parade. All organizations and groups that desired to march in past BUVC run parades, completed applications in which they agreed to follow guidelines that maintained the solemnity and decorum of the day. BUVC parades are explicitly apolitical and all politicking and/or political advocacy during its execution is strictly prohibited. We owe that to those we memorialize on this day, those that gave their lives in defending the freedoms we hold dear.
I view this as a significant step in the right direction towards reconciliation between the BUVC and the Barrington Town Council and I hope this will help heal some of the divisiveness created over the town’s controversial flag policy.
A small victory for sanity and tradition. Maybe a sign of a shift in local politics across the land? Hey, you can’t take away my dreams.
[Featured Image: Barrington Memorial Day Parade 2015, via YouTube]
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Comments
Remember when they had whites on their knees kiss black feet? That’s how far off the deep end some fell.
The BLM spell, that casts fear among guilt-obsessed white people and causes them to virtue signal, is wearing off. Finally! How many have been hustled?
They keep pushing reparations and it will wear off fast.
Also, Kamala “take a knee” Harris in a bid for social progress. You’ve come along way, baby… uh, fetal-baby. Monica, too. I wonder how many women and men could, would compete on an equitable and inclusive basis. One step forward, two steps backward.
Until everyone embraces ALM — All Lives Matter — this nation will remain divided and on the path to destruction.
It seems the population is overwhleminginly aghast and revolted at the acts of “elected” officials. So how do these lunatics continue to get “elected”?
I think we know.
When you march through the storm, keep your head held high,and don’t be afraid of the dark.
At the end of the road is a golden sky, and the sweet silver song of a lark.
March on through the wind, march on through the rain, though your dreams be tossed and blown.
March on, march on, with hope in your heart, and you’ll never march alone;
With due apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein.
Forget organizing the parade. The veterans should never march in Barrigtons parade again. F’m.
Oh hell no Phil!! these guys NEED to keep organising the parades and each year should be bigger, prouder and more American than the previous year just to rub it in the faces of every little fuck who tried to end their connection to the parades!! March with, actual, PRIDE and smile and rub it in their fucking little bitch ass faces ever year!!!
Why are trannies not being honored as well?
That’s next on the agenda.
There are no auto parts stores (or liquor stores) in Barrington.
For the blue collar stuff, you have to drive over the bridge to Warren.
Halleluah!!!! a small victory for civilization anyway
I read it twice, but no where did I read that the burn, loot, murder flag of those domestic terrorists was taken down (and rightfully burned, etc.)
Am I missing something? Or are the Vets merely back at where they started after the marxists on the town council urinated all over them?
Some, Select [Black] Lives Matter under the Pro-Choice ethical religion is a progressive path and grade.
Did anyone else pick up on this? “ Four members of the town’s DEI Committee shared a statement with the council…”. (From the linked Barrington Times piece.) WTH is a town DEI Committee… a reasonable assumption is that the BLM flag flies still over the Veterans Memorial.
I thought that piece of filth was taken down after Black History Month last year?
Liberal unity.
I didn’t know that the Bureau of Land Management had its own flag. Ops, wrong BLM.
Why is it these progressive groups keep having to take over stuff some deplorables got going n make work?
It’s like their competent
agitatorsinstigatorsparasitesactivists, but not so much with the doing.I fear I must correct myself. Were they competent “activists” they’d have convinced everyone else, and wouldn’t need to take over.
My bad.
Cunha and Jacobs lapped up the elixir of the extremist left.
Is the school committee and town council elected or appointed?
If elected, Barrington voters are to be blamed.