Del. Pat McDonough has threated to pursue legal action and introduce legislation in Annapolis if the Bel Air Independence Day Committee fails to remove or revise rules he claims prohibit free speech during the annual July 4th parade.
A furious letter writing campaign and bitter back-and-forth between Del. McDonough’s supporters and members of the Independence Day Committee ensued after Parade Chairman Mike Blum and McDonough disagreed over whether the signs the delegate carried with him on the Bel Air parade route violated the terms of a contract for the event.
Although Del. McDonough is now calling the incident a “disagreement” and backing away from using the word “confrontation,” earlier versions of the story included descriptions of “obscene disrespect” and “yanking signs from children.”
Evidence may exist in the form of a video filmed during the parade, but Del. McDonough is unsure of whether he will release ...Continue Reading
An Independence Day incident, during which Del. Pat McDonough was apparently asked to observe long-standing July 4th parade rules forbidding the use and display of campaign signs, has turned into a full-fledged fiasco that played out on airwaves and email throughout the day Monday.
The situation progressed throughout the day with Del. McDonough and Blum debating the incident via telephone lines on the Ed Norris Show on 105.7 FM. By nightfall, a letter-writing campaign was well underway.
What follows are a collection of those unedited letters, most of which support ...Continue Reading
Del. Pat McDonough issued the following response to Bel Air Independence Day Parade Chairman Michael Blum following Blum’s own rebuttal this morning:
1) OBEY THE RULES – Mr. Blum shouts, “Rules are rules.” It reminds me of the TV Show “Hogan’s Heroes” when Colonel Klink used to shout out, “These are the rules, Hogan.” The problem is, Mr. Blum, we have one big rule in the U.S.A. It’s called the Constitution. The federal courts have ruled that any regulation, contract, or rule related to an event that is subsidized by public funds shall be declared null and void if it violates the constitutional right of freedom of speech. Yanking signs from children in front of other children, telling parade watchers to put away their “I Love Ehrlich” signs, banning children from receiving candy or other goodies along the parade route, ...Continue Reading
The following letter was sent from Bel Air Independence Day Committee, Inc. Parade Chairman Michael I. Blum as a rebuttal to Del. Pat McDonough’s letter:
To the Editor:
The Bel Air July 4 parade is a non-sectarian, patriotic event, celebrating what is best about our country. All participants in the parade sign a contract in advance in which they specifically agree not to display any signs promoting a cause or issue, and not to campaign for office, or electioneer. Furthermore, each participant in our parade also agrees in advance in writing to obey all commands of the parade marshals, and agrees that failure to so do will subject the participant to immediate ejection from the parade.
These rules have been in place for decades — long before I became parade chairman in 1992 — and have been vigorously enforced every year, to the best of our marshals’ ability. These rules are ...Continue Reading
The following letter was received Sunday afternoon from the office of Del. Pat McDonough:
The theme of the Bel Air Independence Day Parade was supposed to be “American Patriots, Then and Now!” Wow, talk about hypocrisy! Apparently, Michael Blum, Chairman, and the rest of the Parade Committee, don’t have a clue as to what “patriotism” is really all about. Liberty and the Constitutional guarantee of free speech are the foundations of good old U.S.A. patriotism. Chairman Blum and his gang confronted at least three participants in the parade and seized, on one occasion, Delegate Rick Impallaria’s private signs. Blum and company actually yanked these signs from the hands of the children who were carrying them, including a couple of eight year olds.
The reaction from the crowd watching the parade was vitriolic, including shouts of “Sign Nazis or Communists” referring to the sign police. ...Continue Reading
Applications can be filed ON LINE at http://www.belairjuly4.org — just follow the links that say “Join the Parade!”
Application forms and Parade Rules are also available at Bel Air Town Hall, 39 Hickory Avenue, Bel Air.
The Bel Air Parade is looking for car clubs, scout packs, church groups, civic organizations — anyone who loves the USA and loves being in a parade!
The Bel Air Parade is one of the best in the entire Baltimore Metro area and features bands and performers from Maryland, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, New Jersey and New York, plus most of the high school marching bands from Harford County; plus Beauty Queens, local businesses, twirlers and dancers, and much more! Plaques, cash awards and recognition are given the best parade units, in categories!
This year’s theme — AMERICAN PATRIOTS, YESTERDAY AND TODAY!
JOIN THE PARADE, celebrate our freedom, and have a great time!
The Bel Air Independence Day Committee, Inc., announces that Bel Air-based Harford Mutual Insurance Company has become the premier sponsor and fireworks sponsor for the 2009 Bel Air July 4th festivities.
According to Donald W. Stewart, President of the Committee, “We are overjoyed that Harford Mutual, a local company that has had such a long history of support for activities in and around Bel Air and of the 4th of July itself, has made such a commitment to the continuing excellence of our traditional Independence Day festivities.”
“The 4th of July in Bel Air could not exist without the help of local businesses, and we thank Harford Mutual for becoming such an integral part of this traditional local patriotic celebration,” Committee Vice-President and Parade Chairman Michael Blum adds. “I know that Don Stewart devoted himself to securing the premier sponsor, and we on the Committee are overjoyed at the result!”
One of the greatest moments of my career as a local newspaper reporter came a few days after Maryland District 7 Delegates Pat McDonough and Rick Impallaria got into a scuffle with a pro-immigration activist in an Annapolis hallway.
I was sitting at a Board of Education meeting and in a break between presentations, listening in on a hushed recounting of the incident. The board’s liaison to the state legislature was filling the school system’s second in command (a congenial guy named Ray Brown, who’s since taken another job) on details too grisly for print.
I leaned over and said, “You know the best part – when the guy pushed Pat McDonough…” and I held my hands up to show how a toupee might have been slipped halfway off (when we said we’d publish rumors, this is what we meant…Pat could very well be ...Continue Reading
