Maitland, FL, City Commission Meeting
14 January 2019
Randa Black (269 words - 2:10)

The fourth secular invocation at the City of Maitland. The entire transcript of this and dozens more secular invocations are available at www.cflfreethought.org/invocations

It’s an honor to be here. Thank you for the opportunity to give a secular invocation. It’s wonderful that you encourage differing views.

Instead of a prayer or a moment of silence, let us invoke the higher power of “we the people.” Working together enhances and benefits the individual and the community. What we strive for in ourselves, let us seek in each of us here who share our passion for service to the City of Maitland.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, “An individual has not started living until he can rise above the narrow confines of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity.”

As we look around this room at one another, we may see a wide variety of races, ages, gender expressions, religious and non-religious views, and of course various opinions on important issues up for discussion. We are all different in some way... May we also look at one another and recognize our similarities. We ALL have a right to be here, to be heard, and to know that we matter to the community. Because indeed we do. Each of us makes up the colorful, uniqueness that makes us human. We are all the same in the most important ways.

I’m grateful for each and everyone of you, not in spite of, but because of our differences.

The original motto of the United States of America was one of inclusion. “E Pluribus Unum”, which translates, “from many, one.”

May we all share the joy and gratitude for living in this great nation and residing in the beautiful City of Maitland.

Thank you.