Memo to state legislators: Thirty-five years is long enough. That’s how long you’ve punted on creating a special commission to investigate and recommend changes to the seal and motto on the Massachusetts state flag.
Let’s get the commission formed this legislative session so that investigative work can begin on whether to change the state symbol.
The timing couldn’t be better. In November 2020, the state will mark the 400th anniversary of Europeans’ arrival and contact with the indigenous peoples of the continent.
Fortunately, momentum for such an examination is building. It’s hard to ignore the numerous communities throughout the commonwealth that over the last year have begun to weigh in on the issue, passing resolutions to back legislation aimed at overhauling the seal and flag.
In the next week, we hope two more Valley communities join the fray. On Saturday, Leverett voters are expected to take up a resolution supporting the effort. They’ll be followed next Thursday by Hadley voters.
Should these voters take the wise step to pass resolutions calling on the Legislature to finally move ahead with a commission, they would join several other cities and towns, including Northampton and Amherst, whose top political bodies approved similar measures earlier this year.
Other communities to OK resolutions include Greenfield, Gill, Lincoln, New Salem, Orange, Provincetown and Wendell. And more are coming this spring as at least two dozen other communities, mostly in western Massachusetts, take up the idea at town meetings.
For years, state Rep. Byron Rushing, D-Suffolk, filed bills to create a commission, and those bills typically died in committee for lack of public support. This legislative session, new state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, took up the mantle, filing a bill that calls for a commission to investigate features of the state seal that may be “unwittingly harmful to or misunderstood by the citizens of the commonwealth.”
New state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Amherst, co-sponsored a similar bill in the Senate.
The bills would create a special commission of 20 seats, five of which will be reserved for Native American leaders. The commission would be chaired by John “Jim” Peters, executive director of the state’s Commission on Indian Affairs and a Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe member. The state commission would make recommendations for a revised or new design. It would also create an educational program on the history and meaning of the seal and motto.
A final report would be due no later than Dec. 2, 2020, though we’d like to see something before the 400th anniversary in November 2020 of the Pilgrims landing at Plymouth.
The state seal shows a blue shield with an Algonquin native in gold holding a bow in his right hand and a downward arrow in his left, with a five-pointed silver star above his right arm, representing Massachusetts as one of the original 13 states. Over the native’s head is an arm grasping a broadsword, with the state motto in Latin written in gold on a blue ribbon streaming below the native. Dating to 1775, it translates as: “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.”
Today, from our modern perspective, it seems the symbol is outdated and conveys the wrong message.
The time to study the flag is now. The symbol of any state is supposed to reflect its values and strengths. Clearly, for many, the current design misses the mark by a long shot. For years, many Native Americans and others have viewed the seal and motto as an offensive symbol of white supremacy and the historical oppression of Native people in Massachusetts and our nation as a whole.
That alone is enough to study changing it, and creating a commission does not bind legislators to making a change. Any recommendations the commission makes would have to be approved by the Legislature.
We should listen to critics who argue that it is a symbol of oppression and subjugation. Times change. And it’s long past time to study whether our flag should change with them.