Sit, Don’t Stand
As Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill admonished yesterday during the Board of County Commissioners meeting, “It is not mandatory to rise, by the way.”
We’d like to question how wrong can invocations go? About this wrong!
Why is the Washoe County Republican and Republican Central Committee Chair, Bruce Parks, performing an invocation at the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners meeting? We have no answer.
Why is the Washoe County Commission Chair Alexis Hill telling people during the invocation that it is not mandatory to rise? By the way, she delivered this message, after, Mr. Parks, the individual delivering the invocation asked people to stand.
Why did Hill stayed seated during the invocation? Vice Chair Jeanne Herman and Commissioners Mariluz Garcia, Clara Andriola, and Mike Clark all took a moment to rise.
The optics and admonishment by Chair Hill were sad. Washoe County deserves better government.
Why don’t Washoe County Government employees go over the invocation with the people delivering it. You know, sort of like a dress rehearsal. Let them know not to ask people to stand, so then they don’t need to be admonished that they don’t need to stand. Or is the goal to have the county continue to look, well, just bad.
When Commissioner Clara Andriola asked for an invocation at county commission meetings once a month we wondered if she had any idea what she was opening the county up to. Remember the Satanic prayer a few weeks back, we do, we wrote about it. Picon will defend the gentleman who delivered the Satanic prayer that he had every right to do so because of the direction Washoe County took with the invocation and application process. Now we have a Republican Chairmen performing the invocation. According to Washoe County’s guidelines anyone can apply to deliver an invocation and they are taken in order of application submission.
Our thought, Washoe County Commissioners would be smart to get rid of the invocation and move on. It’s not working for you and the optics just keep getting worse. Yesterday’s commission meeting invocation being another example.
We don’t think God cares if you sit or stand during an invocation, and times are changing, most invocations have gone the way of the dodo, hence we ponder why Washoe County embraced an invocation in 2023. Our guess, Commissioner Clara Andriola was pandering to the faith-based communities for votes. That idea seems to have backfired.