Re “O’Leary Steaming Over Meghan’s Dump-the-Invocation Request”
[img]1307|right|Meghan Sahli-Wells||no_popup[/img]One week ago this morning, 30 minutes after midnight, the new mayor set off a firestorm in the old bosom of the new vice mayor when she asked for three votes to place “a discussion about the (City Manager’s pre-meeting) invocation” on a near agenda.
Mehaul O’Leary’s steaming response was duly reported – but the fullness of Meghan Sahli-Wells’s intentions were not, in part because she did not state them at the meeting.
Her objective, she explained in an abbreviated interview last week, was to hew to the Founding Fathers’ desire to keep church and state separate.
Since that vague phrase has been open to conflicting interpretations for more than 200 years, here is the latest swing at it.
Mayor Sahli-Wells said this morning her intention only is to change the label “invocation,” which, by dictionaries, carries a religious connotation.
“My proposal was to change the title to one that has no religious connotation,” she told the newspaper.
What are the mayor’s suggestions for a substituted name?
That answer will have to await a City Council meeting. “I am open to suggestions,” she said. “I have a couple of ideas” – which she would not reveal – “but I want to wait until there is a discussion.”
Mayor Sahli-Wells indicated it likely will not be on next Tuesday night’s agenda – with Memorial Day pushing the date back 24 hours. “This is not an earth-shatteringly pressing issue,” she said.
Vice Mayor O’Leary was on his feet and at 12:30 in the morning and ready to scoot for home from the yawning 5½-hour meeting, which still was shorter than yesterday’s 7½-hour Council budget discussion. He vowed to fight an attempt to eliminate the invocation, which, in City Hall’s recent history, never has been remotely religious.
Council colleague Andy Weissman found out Mayor Sahli-Wells only wanted to make a name change when he emailed her and asked her objective.
He recalled that several years ago when Chris Armenta was mayor, a similar discussion arose and it was quickly rebuffed by Mr. O’Leary.
Mr. Weissman said he could embrace a name change, perhaps to Thought of the Day.
