CANTON, S.D. – – Lincoln County Commissioner Douglas Putnam apologized Tuesday night for an antisemitic comment he made at the May 27 commission meeting.
Putnam addressed the commission and public at the start of Tuesday’s regular commission meeting.
“I’m going to apologize to all of the Jewish people I might have offended, and to Ben Shapiro – the only Jewish person I know,” he said, referencing the conservative commentator.
But the commission declined to bring a vote on a resolution condemning antisemitism and supporting Israel. That resolution, which died after failing to receive a second, was brought by Commissioner Joel Arends.
Commissioner Tiffani Landeen opened the meeting by addressing the Putnam’s comment. The commissioner made the May 27 comment during discussions about the cost of a lease the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office negotiated.
Landeen said that statement or any slur is inappropriate for their meetings.
“It does not represent Lincoln County as a whole and this commission. Words carry weight,” she said.
Landeen invited other commissioners to address the issue.
Commissioner Jim Schmidt took the opportunity, saying “words have consequences.”
“Words that we grew up with when we were young, they were wrong then, and they are wrong now,” Schmidt said.
Landeen then invited the public to comment. Linda Montgomery said everyone is guilty of making inappropriate comments, and she made a Biblical reference by asking who among them was going to throw the first stone.
Putnam then stood up and made his comments. He started by saying he wanted to explain his heritage and background. He said his earliest ancestors arrived in the New World from England in the 1600s. His ancestors fought in the American Revolution against the British, and in the Civil War on the North’s side to preserve the Union and abolish slavery, he said.
His uncle, he added, served on a bomber in World War II, and his father was part of the post-war occupation of Japan.
He said he had a “nice conversation” with Rabbi Mendel Alperowitz who leads the Chabad Jewish Center of South Dakota. Alperowitz received requests for comment from the media, but he spoke to Putnam first so he could understand what had happened, the commissioner said.
“He wanted to talk to me before he talked to them,” Putnam said.
When he finished, Schmidt thanked Putnam for the apology.
“Commissioner Putnam, I know you’re not a hateful man, I know you’re a very caring and giving man, and I think that, as I said before, those words and phrases that we once uttered as kids now are coming back, and they’re inappropriate today as they were then,” he said.
When Arends’ resolution supporting Israel came up, he also thanked Putnam for the apology. Arends pointed to the large upswing in antisemitic attacks since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel. A Nazi group recently showed up at the state Capitol in Pierre, and Arends said that statements – even made benignly because they were from a different era – give emotional and political comfort to those groups.
He added that his daughter at South Dakota State University started seeing social media posts about Putnam’s comment.
“I don’t say that to bash anybody or make them feel bad, but I say it kind of from an educational point of view to let you know that what we say – usually the stupid stuff – travels very far, very quick in the society that we live in,” Arends said.
When his resolution didn’t receive a second from another member of the commission, Arends said he was disappointed the commission didn’t want to take a stand on the issue.
But Commissioner Betty Otten that the state’s political leadership has already voiced strong support for Israel.
“We are active supporters of Israel,” she said.
Schmidt said he would be willing to support a resolution that broadly condemns discrimination against all ethnicities and races.
“I think we should take the time as a commission and discuss this and come back with a resolution that condemns all bigotry, all discrimination against all groups, whether they be the Jewish family, whether they be Native Americans, whether they be Hispanic, whether they be immigrants, and a little comment, if I may have levity, against Norwegians,” he said
