You may be slightly familiar with the official seal and motto of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but I doubt you’re able to describe in detail the rendering of the seal or translate the motto from Latin to English. Don’t worry, I went straight to Google too. Which is perhaps why the Massachusetts legislature is considering a complete overhaul of both.
A proposed bill going before the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight on February 26 will perhaps lead to a more modern spin on “Ense petit placidam sub libertate quietem” (loosely, “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty”) and the depiction of an Algonquin Native American, bow and arrow in hand (pointing downward to signify peace) alongside a five-pointed star, all of which are positioned beneath a right arm holding a broadsword bent at the elbow.
A lot going on there.
Proposed by state Representative Byron Rushing, House bill 2873 (see: below) calls for the formation of an investigatory committee to examine “the features of the official seal and motto of the commonwealth including those which have been controversial or misunderstood or are no longer meaningful” but also to determine if the current seal & motto, as well as those proposed as replacements or revisions, “accurately reflect and embody the historic and contemporary commitments of the commonwealth to peace, justice, liberty and equality, and to spreading the opportunities and advantages of education.”
Should the committee come to the conclusion that a new seal and motto are instrumental in better representing the Bay State, they’ll be charged with designing new ones and creating an educational program on the history and meaning of each.
How exactly the committee will decide on new design options, should the bill be signed into law, remains unclear at this point. Perhaps, though, they’ll take a page out of the Mayor’s Office of New Urban Mechanics’ book and crowdsource it. Giving everyday residents a chance to make their lasting mark on official state matters is arguably the best way to engage with them while adding an air of transparency into the inner-workings of government matters that allows for a dissolving of suspicion that typically accompanies government.
BostInno reached out to Representative Rushing’s office to find out why he thinks the seal and motto are in need of a makeover, but he was not available for comment.
