The above image is not the seal of the city of Rutland. Well, most of it is. But the Latin motto at the bottom is a mischievous addition. “Quidam amici optimi mei sunt Musulmanus” translates, more or less, to “Some of My Best Friends Are Muslim.” The actual city seal does not feature a Latin motto at all; instead, across the bottom it says “A Town Sept. 7, 1761, A City Nov. 19, 1892.”

We’ll get to the history in a moment. But first, breaking news. This fake seal somehow ended up on the front cover of the city government’s annual report for the fiscal year that ended last June. You can’t see it terribly well, but here’s a picture:

You may or may not be able to make out the words, but it’s clearly the Muslim-friendly Latin, not that boring Town/City stuff.

Oopsie.

I cannot tell you how this happened, but I can tell you the origin of the fake seal.

For those just joining us, once upon a time there was a place on the Internet called Green Mountain Daily. (Well, it’s still there, but it’s been inactive for more than four years.) GMD was a group blog for those of a liberal persuasion. Its ringleader was John Odum, at the time a Democratic insider type. I was invited to join the blog in 2011, and that’s how my career of doing this stuff got started.

Later, John was elected Montpelier City Clerk, a position he still holds. But when he became clerk he had to step away from GMD, and nobody ever really took his place. It gradually became inactive, as Internet things often do.

Back to Rutland. In 2016 there was a huge uproar in the city over an idea by then-mayor Chris Louras to host 1,000 refugees from the Syrian civil war. It would have helped refresh the city’s economy and culture, but it was a bridge too far for many locals. Louras lost his bid for re-election and the idea never went anywhere.

In the spring of 2017, in the wake of Louras’ defeat, a writer identified only as “gnome” took to Green Mountain Daily and wrote a brief post about how city leaders were trying to overcome the perception that their fair city might be a little tiny bit racist. As part of the effort, according to “gnome,” the city adopted a new Latin motto reflecting a friendly attitude toward Muslims. The illustration at the top of this post, complete with cut-and-pasted Latin motto, accompanied the GMD piece.

So that’s where this thing came from. How it ended up on the city’s most important publication of the year is beyond my capacity to discover or even guess. (I understand the Rutland Herald is working on a story, which will likely uncover some of the missing pieces.) I’m only here to point and laugh.