Beautiful weather and a love of country brought over 400 Putnam County residents to Cornerstone Park in Carmel early Sunday, October 1st for a rally to ""Stand up for America" organized by the Putnam County Executive MaryEllen Odell after the recent Professional athletes protest against America and the President by kneeling before the Flag during the playing of the National Anthem at sporting events. Numerous celebrities and other major municipalities elected officials have also been photographed recently "taking a knee" in solidarity with the players protest. County officials felt that despite the validity of the protests it was time for local residents to show their support for our Flag, Anthem and the millions of Veterans, Active Military, Police, Fire and EMS personnel who put their lives on the line every day. County Executive O'Dell in her remarks noted that the flag "flies due to the last breaths of all the veterans who died" protecting the rights of Americans.
Keynote speaker Karl Rohde spoke of his service in Vietnam and his treatment upon returning to the US afterwards in which he took a Flag sticker off his car because he did not want anyone to know he was former military. He took that stance for almost 20 years until 1991 when he became actively involved in Veterans affairs and came to grips with his time in service. He regrets denying his service for so long and that he did not spend those years helping other veterans as he does now. Legislative Chairperson Ginny Nacerino (Patterson) also addressed the crowd at one point.
Dr. Jeanine Guglielmo and her family made a presentation to the PFC. Joseph P. Dwyer VET 2 VET program of Putnam County. The goal of the program is to match trained veterans to assist returning service members and veterans re-adjust and reduce or eliminate the negative impact a trauma induced incident has on them, their family and society.
Several local residents said they were there to support our first responders and all military personnel from what they believed was the NFL's players disrespect for their sacrifices. Several also stated they have canceled their Sirius XM Radio NFL subscriptions and are refusing to watch any NFL games for as long as it takes for the NFL to get the message. There were also about a dozen counter protesters to the rally but everyone was civil and there were no incidents reported.
Photo credit: Peter Carey, Brewster HamletHub Editor