The Bithplace and Death Scene of Liberty, Maskachusetts. Sickening.

https://www.bostonherald.com/2.../18/bhr-l-seal-0519/

The article is behind a pay wall.

^^^I am NOT a subscriber and it opens right up for me. I'm using FireFox ESR w/ AdGuard AdBlocker, and lots of filters enabled. Just checked and it opens right up on Brave as well...

I don't want to sign up, get my e-mailbox spammed and have to unsubscribe to read the article. I looked up the seal. Which part is offensive, the indigenous American Indian holding a bow in the center, or the arm holding a sword on top? Who's bothered by it?

Massachusetts should change it to a dildo and sickle crossed with a rainbow background… sort similar to the Soviet Unions logo but more gay. That would represent that state fairly accurately.

By MATTHEW MEDSGER | mmedsger@bostonherald.com | Boston Herald
PUBLISHED: May 18, 2022 at 6:53 p.m. | UPDATED: May 19, 2022 at 9:19 a.m.
The seal and motto of Massachusetts should change, according to the commission responsible for making recommendations on the controversial image and phrase.

“It’s a reflection of centuries of intentional exclusion on the part of the commonwealth from the land, laws and historical records of indigenous residents,” committee co-chair Brian Boyles said when explaining where the seal came from.

On Tuesday, the members of the state’s Special Commission Relative to the Seal and Motto of the Commonwealth voted unanimously to recommend the seal and motto be changed.


The seal, originally adopted in 1898, features a Native American stylized character in a blue coat of arms and bearing a bow and arrow. Above the man’s head is a disembodied arm and sword, apparently representing the arm of Plymouth colony military adviser Myles Standish.


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The sword appears to be threatening the man, a fact reinforced by the state’s official motto, which surrounds that Native figure on its flag, “ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem.”

This translates from Latin to loosely mean, “by the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.”

This is especially troubling, according to commission member Brittney Walley, also a member of the Nipmuc Nation, who said that the colony Standish fought to protect would not have been able to flourish and become the state we know if not for the natives the flag shows him threatening.

“The lack of input from indigenous communities in the seal is very concerning,” she said. “Without indigenous communities, colonies such as Plymouth would not have survived and Massachusetts would not exist or be as it is today.”

The man pictured, Boyle told the commission, wasn’t even a native of the commonwealth, but his remains were kept at a museum here and his image selected at the turn of the century. No native communities were consulted during this selection, Boyle said.


Retired Brig. Gen. Leonid Kondratiuk voted in favor of the change, but also asked the committee to remember it was under that seal that thousands of veterans from the commonwealth have given their lives.

“Seventeen thousand Massachusetts soldiers died under that flag from 1787 to World War I,” he said. “That is on my mind as we approach memorial day.”

The decision on how to proceed was not subject to a Vote Tuesday, though commission members did seem to consider the idea of allowing public input into the selection of a new seal and motto.

Regardless of how the committee proceeds, the decision will ultimately be made by the legislature based on their recommendation.

“You have to find something that more or less represents the entirety of what we’re tasked with and not individual pieces,” Jim Wallace, a board member appointed by Gov. Charlie Baker said. “We have to do something that is all inclusive.”

Would it not just be easier to get rid of the people that are arguing for the change.

Just think about all the letterhead and envelopes. The stamps and website graphics.

Surely that outweighs the benefits of keeping the troublemakers around.

They've been talking about this for years. I'll believe it when I see it.