Lake County (FL) Commission Meeting
9 January 2018
David Williamson (335 words - 2:06)

The fifth secular invocation offered by the CFFC in Lake County. The entire transcript of this and dozens more secular invocations are available at www.cflfreethought.org/invocations

 

Good morning, Mr. Chairman and Happy New Year, Commissioners, staff, and citizens.

Whether here voluntarily this morning or as part of your duty of service to the County, thank you for being here.

Through the millennia we’ve learned the hard lesson that the best way to govern people is for people to govern themselves.

Today, in this tradition, we travel from our homes and businesses across the County to participate in this Great American Experiment.

Citizens, staff, and those elected, we all converge on this chamber to join as ONE community, indivisible, with the shared purpose of service to one another—service to those we know—and to those we may never meet.

While we arrived as individuals; each with unique ideas and experiences, we ALL have a need to fulfill.

Citizens collaborate with, and request assistance from, their county government and we are grateful for their courage to speak and for their trust in the process.

The needs brought will be met by others—those who have a different need—a need to serve.

Service is offered by the County staff who provide INVALUABLE advice and expertise.

Their years of service combined provides decades of knowledge and experience. Their wise counsel is appreciated more than can be expressed in a few words.

Elected officials listen, deliberate, debate, and decide the path forward for the people of Lake County and its cherished visitors.

We can never offer our thanks enough, for the thankless task of public service.

While we work together here, and later today, when we leave this chamber, let us carry with us this same spirit of goodwill; this same desire to help one another today, tomorrow and every day that follows.

Because together we can accomplish far more than we can on our own.

This is why and how we decided to assemble, to serve, and to govern, ourselves.

It is why our nation’s motto for the Seal of the United States of America is:

“Out of many—one. E Pluribus Unum.”