Two Knoxville, Iowa, city council members lost their seats after they voted to remove a veterans memorial.
Carolyn Formanek and April Verwers both lost their city council seats following a vote to remove a wooden silhouette of a soldier kneeling before a cross. The memorial was moved to private property and was replaced with a bronze memorial.
Formanek and Verwers voted in favor of removing the memorial after the organization Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, based in Washington, D.C., petitioned to have it removed due to the religious aspect of it.
“I hope it brings some closure to it,” Mayor Brian Hatch told The Des Moines Register. “I hope we can kind of achieve the best of both worlds. We avoid a costly lawsuit and at the same time we still have the silhouette memorial up honoring the veterans, right across the road hopefully, on private property.”
Despite the vote to remove the memorial, the incumbent city councilwomen were ousted from their seats after supporters of the memorial voted against them.
After the councilwomen were voted out, a Facebook page called Stop the Insanity celebrated the win in a post.
“Last night was a huge victory. We showed this council that if you ignore the people we won’t support you. Now the real work begins. The current council are still in office until January 1st. I hope that they got our message. But they clearly did not before. And the silhouette was still ordered to be removed,” the post read.
“However, when the new council takes over, we can and will request to put it back. Thank you guys for everything. I’ve said we will continue to fight as long as you support us. And last night you overwhelming said you do just that!”
Many readers applauded the citizens of Knoxville for removing the women from office.
“Finally, I’m so sick of one person or a small handful imposing their will on the majority! I’m sick of the phony political correctness. Thank you people of Knoxville City, Iowa for standing up for our veterans. I hope you inspire the rest of the country,” one Mad World News reader commented on the site’s Facebook page.
“Our government is not to be composed of people who run their own agenda, or even people who think they “know what’s best” for the voters. For far too long, the government has acted as a voice of the offended minority, ignoring that they are directly offending the majority in the process,” another added.