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Cambridge man wants $24 million because the state seal offends him
By adamg on Wed, 02/01/2012 - 8:04am
The Herald reports on some guy who finds a state seal showing an arm holding a sword above an Indian extremely offensive.
The Herald says a Suffolk Superior Court judge agreed with the state Attorney General's office a temporary restraining order against the seal wasn't warranted because the aggrieved Cantabrigian, Daniel DeGugliemo, failed to show he was being directly harmed by the seal, unlike the Indian, who looks like his head is about to be lopped off.
The origins of the state seal date back to a colonial seal that showed a Native American with a thought balloon above his head reading "Come over and Help Us" - you can still see one of those embedded in the exterior of the Old State House on the Washington Street side. The plea was replaced with a Bedford Arm in Revolutionary times.
DeGugliemo's sensibilities are also offended by the state motto, which, roughly translated, reads "Look, man, we don't want any trouble, but we have this sword, so back off."
State Rep. Byron Rushing has unsuccessfully tried for more than three decades to force a change in the state seal for the same reason, but he's never asked for damages.
DeGugliemo is founder of the Cambridge Sunshine Foundation and has a site calling for an Amendment of Honesty and Treaty of Destiny to respect Native Americans.
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Comments
That sword is not going to
That sword is not going to cut that Indian's head off. It is a disembodied arm attached to nothing. I didn't know Rushing was such a crank. I guess I wasn't paying enough attention. Maybe we could revert to the cartoon thought-bubble Indian? That way we would all be happy.
Representative Rushing isn't
Representative Rushing isn't a crank, just a PC looney-bin sucking on the government teat and generally doing whatever Martha Walz tells him to do. I don't even know what's going on with this clown in Cambridge though.
Cripes
A change in the state seal is a good idea.
A change in the state seal is a good idea. What ways are there do it?
Schoolhouse Rock?
I'm Just A Bill works the same way on the state level as well. Did you skip Civics class?
Why is it a good idea? Could
Why is it a good idea? Could you elaborate? Is this not an example of wasting money to "fix" a problem that really isn't a problem?
Cripes
At what weblinks are court documents for this?...
At what weblinks are court documents for this?...
The arguments in online court documents would explain more about it.
How about a giant hole
How about a giant hole representing the collective intelligence of the state government, the big dig, and the money pit that is the transit department
Agreed!
I find your ideas intriguing, and wish to subscribe to your weekly newsletter.
Cambridge Offends Me
I wonder if i can sue this moonbat, seeing that this offends me personaly. Cambridge is like the Canada of Boston.
Class Action!
Let's all join in on a class action against the guy for $24 million and one dollar. You never know. If we win, it might put a damper on future idiotic lawsuits. AND, with the extra dollar, we could all buy a pack of gum to share (I get first chew, since I thought of it.)
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Please...
...don't insult Canada like that! It's not fair to them; they were born with Tim Horton's.
Have you seen Canada lately?
I realize Canada has been the North American socialist
utopiawhipping boy lately, but Stephen Harper's Canada is playing a new tune now that they have billions in potential petro-dollars on the horizon.Mass Bay Colony Seal
Come over and help us!
Oh, the irony
I appreciate the man's argument...but isn't it more Cambridgian to sit back and scoff while appreciating the irony that our state seal is probably the most authentic of them all?
The Indian is there from the days of the "Come over and help us" seal which acted as if the Indians needed the settlers to arrive. Then the arm comes from the "Conquer or die" Bedford battle flag...which was essentially pointed at the Indians after it was done being pointed at the British.
The Bedford arm IS pointed at the Indian...because the Bedford arm WAS pointed at the Indian. Oh, cruel irony! Wanting to take that off of the state seal sounds like the kind of revisionism that leads to people rewriting the bible to make it fit their conservative beliefs and taking all of the deists out of the US history books and only leaving the bible-thumping Christian founders of the country instead. Hehe...I think I just heard the complainant's head pop.
The Indian is there from the
The Indian is there from the days of the "Come over and help us" seal which acted as if the Indians needed the settlers to arrive.
They did need the settlers to arrive. The Wampanoags had lost the majority of their population to a plague, and the Pequots were taking advantage of the situation and starting to encroach on Wampanoag territory.
By allying with the Mayflower pilgrims, the Wampanoags were able to force the Pequots to back off, lest they lose their trading relationships with visiting English ships.
Hence the original seal.
"The Wampanoags had lost the
"The Wampanoags had lost the majority of their population to a plague"
And who do you think brought that plague to America in the first place? White fishermen from Spain, England, and France.
The Wampanoags were not all that sure about the Pilgrims and Puritans in the first place, either.
"The Wampanoags were not all
"The Wampanoags were not all that sure about the Pilgrims and Puritans in the first place, either."
They got 50 years of peace with the English and with all the neighboring tribes out of the deal.
By the standards of the time that was not bad at all.
During that time younger Wampanoags were learning metal working and shipbuilding. If not for the hotheaded King Philip, the Wampanoags would have caught up to the 1600s and been better positioned to hold their own in a fight.
Yeah....
Now, fast forward to King Philip's War and see if it isn't just a bit hollow and almost insulting to put "come here and help us" on the state seal...
lets all watch this episode
lets all watch this episode of south park and everything should be ok...
http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s13e...
Why don't you learn about this history of the seal FIRST
The Latin translates to "By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty"
Find another cause. And go buy a brain cell.
ANYONE: give me one good
ANYONE:
give me one good reason why this man, or any man or woman, should receive MONEY because of this seal?
Read court documents, arguments... online access.
Read court documents, arguments...
For online access to the courts, ask Superior Court Administrative Office Case Management Coordinator E. Peter Nylin
http://www.mass.gov/courts/courtsandjudges/courts/...
tel 617 788-8130
fax 617 788-8137
Im suing Cambridge for one reason only
the fact that in Harvard Square they can't make up their fucking minds how long the parking meters should be. One street they're thirty minutes, one street they're one hour and one street they're two hours.
What's up with that?
IMO that's a good parking scheme
That actually makes sense. A few short-term meters in the spots closest to businesses where you pop in to buy something, then longer-term meters as you get further away. And Cambridge's 30-minute meters are painted yellow, so it's easy to spot them as you drive.
It "bothers" him?
Poor little fragile eggshell-thin Cantabridgian loser! You know what bothers me? Cambridge!
I just spent almost 5 years living in the UK where, apparently, people have adapted to grow thicker skins. I cannot imagine anyone in the UK being bothered by anything like this and the appropriate response to someone who was bothered would be "GET OVER IT!!!!"
If I had 24 million for everything that bothered me...
Dude, everything bothers your sterotypical Cantabridgian..
Try and take your dog to the enclosed dog park at Danehy Park sometime. You'll inevitably meet some white person in dreads and who wears sandals with thick socks in winter who asks you if you're a Cambridge resident.
I usually respond that I'm not, but the dog is.
Cambridge dog park
The dog park thing doesn't bother me a bit. If Cambridge residents want to buy nice things for themselves, at the expense of being laughed at as "socialists" by so many others (look at this thread, for example) then I think it's entirely reasonable for Cambridge to say to residents of other towns, "Go buy your own dog park; don't use ours."
Don't you think it makes no sense whatsoever
that I can walk my dog off leash through the entirety of Danehy Park unmolested by residency requirements, yet this small part of the park is closed to everyone but residents?
Cambridge
There's no d in Cantabrigian.
spelling
there's no d in Cantabrigian
There sure are a lot of
aggrieved Cantabridgians. Sigh.
spelling
There's no d in Cantabrigian.