Loyalty oath still stirs consternation for sandbag volunteers

You'll remember last week, when Hardin, IL's First Presbyterian Church Pastor Paul Frazier (to the left in the photo) expressed outrage about being asked to swear allegiance to the U.S. when he volunteered to help a sandbagging effort in nearby Hamburg?

Thanks to our good friend Joyce Morrison, we had a chance to speak with Pastor Frazier personally this week and he was still perturbed about IEMA's oath.  He said he had since been interviewed by various MSM sources and heard from others who had different experiences in other sandbagging efforts.

"I've talked to others who were sandbagging in Quincy, and no one up there was required to promise they were not terrorists against the United States," Frazier said over dinner at Mel's Riverdock Restaurant Tuesday evening.  "I helped in '93, and nothing like that was mentioned.  It was insulting."

  The Illinois Emergency Management Agency's so-called loyalty oath was reported HERE last week on Illinois Review.  When Rev. Frazier refused to sign IEMA's oath, he was told to report his refusal to the State Police before getting to work.  The police acknowledged his refusal, and allowed the reverent to assist anyway.

The allegiance to the U.S. volunteers in Hamburg were asked to sign is outlined on page 238 in Federal Emergency Management Agency's handbook HERE.

We had a chance to talk to the mayor of Hamburg about the oath, and explained his understanding of why sandbag volunteers were asked to sign the loyalty oath.  More coming from this week's IR  Illinois trip . . .

(Illinois Review.com photos)