Sunday, May 4, 2008

DID OUR CATAWBA COUNTY COMMISSIONERS DO WHAT THE ACLU COULDN'T?

In the summer of 2000, the ACLU came into Catawba County and decided that they were going to tell us what to do with our County Seal. Our county banded together like I have never seen before or since, regular people, preachers, business people and most of all the main group that was up front in this fight, our County Commissioners. We the people of Catawba County won against the ACLU, something that is not real common and one of the resons is because we did not back down from them. We sent a message that summer that the County Seal is ours, the citizens of Catawba County, that it represents us and our history.

Well guess what? On July 13, 2005 the Catawba County Seal was trademarked( or service marked) by our county at The Secretary of State office in Raleigh,NC. On November 7, 2005 our current county commissioners held a Closed Door Session to discuss the County Seal ( six months after this, the minutes to this meeting were released). At a commissioner meeting on November 21 ,2005 the matter regarding the use of the County Seal was discussed. After talking about several different options between the commissioners and the county attorney, a commissioner made a motion to RESTRICT THE USE OF THE COUNTY SEAL to official County purposes but not restrict the use for history purposes. The motion carried unanimously.
Click here to read the actual minutes of the meeting.

What does this mean? If I put the Seal on my car, or on the window of my home, that is not for history purposes, but because that I am proud to be from Catawba County, am I in violation of their code ? I am sure that if you ask our commissioners about this you will get plenty of spin.

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Catawba County Commissioner Meeting minutes are available on the Catawba County Goverment web site.

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