Seal and motto meeting held to discuss changes – WWLP.com

BOSTON (WWLP) The commission reviewing the state seal and motto met Tuesday to discuss how to properly make changes.

22News is working for you with where the special state commission stands.

The commission has been working for months to overhaul the state motto and seal, and today they discussed how to get the public involved. The group has broken into subcommittees and today the public consultation group met.

The Massachusetts seal and flag currently show a controversial image of an indigenous person standing under an arm wielding a sword. The motto of the Bay State translated from Latin is, By the Sword, we seek peace, but peace only under liberty

It was voted on by the commission that the seal and motto needed to be completely changed due to their offensive nature of it.

We have representation that weve all agreed is not a good representation of a native person, what is the future of that given that I dont think in the list of state symbols that we went over the last meeting, we have any kind of native symbols in there. So I do think we need to be super thoughtful about that, said Brian Boyles, Co-Chair of the Special Commission Relative to the Seal and Motto of the Commonwealth.

The commission met with Steve Koczela Tuesday, the President of MassINC Polling Group, to discuss options on how to poll the public. Options of focus groups, public meetings, and online and telephone surveys were floated.

The groups goal is to get a proper representation of the state in order to create a seal and motto that is for all Massachusetts residents. The cost of the polling could be a hindrance, professional polling could cost roughly between $10,000 to $100,000.

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Seal and motto meeting held to discuss changes - WWLP.com