Somerville Alderman Proposes to Cut Out Weekly Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance at BOA Meetings

By William Tauro.

Ward 6 Alderman Lance Davis during Thursday night’s Somerville Board of Aldermen weekly board meeting proposed to discontinue the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance at all future weekly board meetings.

The board also discussed removing the wording “We the men and women of the Somerville Board of Aldermen” and replaced it with “We the people of Somerville!”

All this coming a week after controversy of a Watertown City Councillor who took a knee to the Pledge of Allegiance during her own inauguration ceremony in Watertown.

Local veterans organizations across the city are in uproar regarding this proposal.

Let us know what do you think about this proposal?

Agree or Disagree?

17 thoughts on “Somerville Alderman Proposes to Cut Out Weekly Prayer and Pledge of Allegiance at BOA Meetings”

  1. Why do people from Central America get preference over people from Central St?
    Can we focus on US? We don’t have to tear our page out of history books to be compassionate. Shouldn’t people that come here for a better way of life experience a better way of life? No place is perfect but why shame us as racists or bigots. Police are forced to disobey laws on books now while joe citizens keep in line or else. Everyone has to wait in line. Just like the Post Office!
    My family matters!
    Sounds like big govt run amuck.

  2. Lance Davis is an ultra Leftist Progressive Liberal. Welcome to the Peoples’ Republic of Somerville. This is not the Somerville that many of us grew up in over the years anymore.

  3. Sorry to spoil the fun here but the information above is not accurate. I proposed to change the wording of one line of the prayer (changing “all men and women” to “all people”). When I mentioned my intention to do this last week someone argued to me they thought we should get rid of both the prayer and the pledge (or, possibly, use the original version of the pledge). In response, I submitted the second item, in which I only asked for information about the history of this practice and any legal requirements that might exist. That’s it. Feel free to watch the video to see what I actually said. I said that getting rid of the prayer and pledge may or may not be the right thing to do but that I don’t think we should have that discussion without a full understanding of the history. I will say this definitively: I have no interest in spending any significant amount of time on this topic because my focus is on the far more important issues that are before us, including dealing with constituent concerns, our ongoing effort to address housing affordability, and the upcoming review of a proposed zoning overhaul, among other issues.

    1. As a former Alderman who was accused of taking a stance on something when it was clear I did not, I cannot recommend watching BOA meetings enough. They are streamed live online and on television. They are also rebroadcast and stored on the meeting portal for review. Please watch before making assumptions and accusations. With that said, stating your truth and recommending readers conduct their due diligence is the proper response – not that there are more important issues. This issue may be just as important to a constituent as another focusing on zoning or affordability.

  4. This should be on the ballet so that the people can decide not just a couple of idiots who have no respect for anything.

  5. There are no words to describe this. Complete lack of disrespect.Go stand in the way of a bullet for our service people.

  6. Before you vote for that, go outside to the entrance of city hall and look at the names of those on the memorial. Disgraceful!

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