For the first time in 68 years, the Barrington United Veterans Coalition will not helm the town’s Memorial Day parade.
The group is claiming the Town Council’s decision to strip it of its cherished role was done in “retribution” for its opposition to flying a Black Lives Matter flag over a veteran’s memorial situated near the town hall.
“We were shocked and blindsided. We were looking forward to hosting this event and had already started the planning,” BUVC President Paul Dulchinos told the Washington Examiner. “When this happened, you couldn’t help but feel it was some form of retribution taken out against us, maybe being a little vindictive or something like that, because otherwise, I can’t understand why this happened.”
The Town of Barrington voted to supplant the veterans’ group with the town manager last Monday. Dulchinos was booted from his role as master of ceremonies, which he held for seven years, and replaced with Frank Douglas, a professor at the Naval War College. Douglas had previously backed the Town Council’s bid to fly the BLM flag over the memorial.
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Michael Carroll, president of the Barrington Town Council, insisted that the decision to take over preparations for the parade was unrelated to the BUVC’s opposition to flying the BLM flag.
“It reflects our desire for broader community participation in this important event as well as consideration of Mr. Dulchinos’s decision not to participate in the 2021 Memorial Day events. I also have concerns about the judgment he’s displayed surrounding previous events. For instance, at a 2020 Veteran’s Day ceremony, his group placed signs about their opposition to Black Lives Matter in front of Victory Gate at the high school,” Carroll told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “It raised questions on our part about his judgment and willingness to observe Memorial Day in an appropriately solemn, respectful, and apolitical way.”
Barrington has offered to collaborate with the BUVC for the forthcoming parade, inviting the group to its parade committee. But the town’s move has not gone over well with the group. Dulchinos indicated that the group will not participate in the parade and will instead administer its own wreath-laying ceremony at Victory Gate near the start of the parade. He said it would be “a bridge too far” to have the town micromanage the parade, which the BUVC had organized for seven decades.
“We are more than willing to step up, jump back in, and run this as we have for the past 68 years, but we can’t have the Town Council dictating to us the terms of how we participate and who will speak in the event,” Dulchinos said.
Dulchinos noted that the Town Council did not give the BUVC a reason for usurping its role nor advance notice that this was coming. Dulchinos said the Town Council told him to attend a March 7 meeting, where he was blindsided by the vote, and he feels the group is being targeted for its convictions.
In the summer of 2020, the town opted to raise a Black Lives Matter flag on a town flagpole above a veterans memorial that the BUVC helped raise private funds for. Wanting to keep the memorial nonpolitical, Dulchinos fervently opposed the move and launched a “Keep Politics Off the Flagpole” campaign to remove the flag. The BUVC prevailed, and the flag was taken down six months later.
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The BUVC only wants the U.S. flag, the Rhode Island flag, the town flag, and the prisoners-of-war flag flown over the memorial — no flags that could politicize it. The group also opposed calls to fly the rainbow flag over the memorial, Dulchinos added.
“We saw this as a slippery slope, although we’re obviously not against any group. We don’t discriminate within our ranks against race, ethnic background, gender, or sexual orientation — none of that is valid,” Dulchinos said. “Our concern is that if you start to fly one flag representing one group, then you would have to accommodate all.”
