A new motto for Clark County?

• Facebook
• Tweet
• Pinterest
• Reddit
• Email

Well, the Clark County councilors certainly haven’t left me wanting for stories in my first few days on the job.

On Tuesday, the council will discuss displaying “In God We Trust” in the public hearing room. Councilor Tom Mielke pitched the idea last month, saying “a lot of times we drift away” from the United States’ official motto. Councilor David Madore posted the attached video (it features Chuck Norris) on his Facebook page last Friday, so I assume he’s in favor of the resolution. I’d ask him myself but neither he nor Mielke have responded to my multiple emails.

Mielke said last month that he didn’t expect much of a backlash, but it’s looking like he was mistaken. A group of protesters plans to be at the Clark County Public Service Center at 9 a.m. tomorrow. The protesters will include members from the Portland branch of the Center for Inquiry, a nonprofit group that promotes a secular society. They’re calling the protest the “E Pluribus Unum” Rally for Unity.

Brian Harvey, executive director for that group, said in a statement that Mielke is “…conveying to all those Clark County residents who do not worship the Judeo-Christian God that they are not full and equal members of this community.”

They don’t pull their punches, those secular humanists. By the way, that group has a Clark County satellite community called the Vancouver Skeptics. Date night idea?

By the way, does anyone think our current motto, “Proud past, promising future,” sounds like the one Leslie Knope advocates for in an episode of Parks and Recreation for Pawnee, Ind.  “Storied past, bright future?” If you ran the show, what motto would you pick for Clark County?

The protests will begin Tuesday at 9 a.m. at 1300 Franklin St., and the meeting will begin at the council’s public hearing room on the sixth floor at 10 a.m. I’ll be live-tweeting from both.