Allegiance to pledge gets award

Defending the Pledge of Allegiance has earned two Orange Coast College students recognition from the Costa Mesa City Council, an honor one of the students said he wishes was for something more noteworthy.

Mayor Allan Mansoor on Tuesday will present the monthly mayor’s award to Christine Zoldos, a former member of the college’s student government, and student Sage Michael for defending the recitation of the pledge at student government meetings.

A minor controversy erupted in November after the student board of trustees voted to stop reciting the pledge at meetings, saying not all students seemed to want to participate and it might make some uncomfortable.

Zoldos and Michael helped lead opposition to the decision to scrap the pledge, which trustees ultimately reinstated. Zoldos resigned from the board, saying the pledge issue was the final straw in a history of differences she had with other trustees.

“I felt they took a courageous stand in support of the Pledge of Allegiance when others were trying to shut it down, and I think it merits recognition,” Mansoor said Friday.

Zoldos said she’s grateful for the recognition from Costa Mesa. During the two weeks or so that the pledge issue was in the news, she said, she received hundred of e-mails, nearly all of which supported her defense of the pledge.

“I got an e-mail from a mayor in North Carolina; I got e-mails from veterans — they were all thanking me for standing up for what the veterans fought for,” Zoldos said.

Michael, however, said he wished the city was recognizing him for something more worthwhile, like the campus volunteer center he founded. The center works with local service organizations and offers kids homework help at homeless shelters, among other activities.

“For all the outreach things that we do, it’s unfortunate that the thing that gets mentioned is the headline grabber of an attack on the Pledge of Allegiance,” Michael said.

Michael plans to accept the award because it might help the school recover from the black eye it got in the pledge skirmish, but he intends to tell the council about the volunteer center also.

Mansoor was disappointed that the school’s administrators didn’t make a stronger statement in support of the pledge.

“Debate is important, and I respect that,” he said, but, “to me it’s crucial that we support the pledge. People have fought and died for our flag … and the freedom that it represents.”