Approval by four town meetings to call for Massachusetts to change its state flag and state seal is “a pretty good start,” said the organizer of the campaign, who says he hopes the legislation it supports will move forward this session.
Voters in Gill, New Salem and Orange this week approved the resolution, OK’d earlier this spring in Wendell, in support of legislation that would create a special commission to recommend changes to the seal, which shows a Native American with a colonial sword brandished over his head.
The bill, filed by Rep. Byron Rushing, D-Boston, for the past 34 years, is now before the House Ways and Means Committee after being recommended by the House committees on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight and Rules.
“I’m hoping it will be enough to persuade the House Ways and Means Committee to move forward,” said lead organizer of the grassroots effort David Detmold. “If not, we’ll be back to annual town meetings in Franklin County next year and hope the resolutions will carry throughout the county if not the state. If we don’t get a favorable result this year, I think we’re going to try to move this same tactic statewide.”
In Gill, where Historical Commission Chair Ivan Ussach said the timing of the resolution was to find “an appropriate way to honor” the 400th anniversary of the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth in 2020, as “a chance for not just Western Mass., but Franklin County, the region we live in, to really take leadership and say this is something we believe in strongly,” the measure passed by majority vote.
“It’s not going to change the past and I’m not responsible for whatever happened 400 years ago,” said Gill resident Jim Bates, while fellow resident Gary Bourbeau objected to having to “pay for something that none of us in this room was responsible for. … How much money will it cost to change those flags and seals?”
But Detmold and others circulating petitions seeking the resolutions said the seal approved by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1898, was offensive.
“We hope we don’t have to repeat this process again next year, but if we do, we think we’ll find allies around the state to bring before many more town meetings next year, if need be.”