Taking an oath is not a joke!
Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson can try to justify not reciting hers on Jan. 1, but it is simply unacceptable. She was ordered to report back to the City Clerk’s office to try again. She did so, obviously realizing her stunt was offensive.
Her imprudence should not go unchallenged because the oath is sacrosanct.
It separates us from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Kim Jong Un’s North Korea, and Xi Jinping’s China. We could list a few other countries, but the oath is everything we believe in our souls.
Our Democracy is flawed, but it’s ours to improve as best we can in our time on Earth. This great city deserves nothing less! We’ll use up our allotment of exclamation points if that’s what it takes to stop this ridiculousness!
Fernandes Anderson made a mockery out of the oath, and she owes the city an apology. She’s being paid $115,000 and should act professionally!
She told all of us who take pride in being from here that our lives are cheap. Our morals are repugnant. Our faiths are disposable.
We refuse to side with her.
The oath, on page 76 of the City of Boston Charter, states that councilors “will bear true faith and allegiance to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and will support the Constitution thereof, so help me God.”
And that each councilor “solemnly” swears to “faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me as of the City of Boston, according to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably to the rules and regulations of the Constitution and the laws of the Commonwealth, so help me God. I do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States, so help me God.”
Mayor Michelle Wu, who must take the exact same oath, said Fernandes Anderson was told to take the oath again — and do it right this time — and that her vote on Monday electing Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune as council president is now null and void.
That vote, electing a Black woman as head of the council, is now 12-0 instead of 13-0. That’s sad.
Fernandes Anderson did not respond to a message left to explain her anti-oath drama. She has posted justification on social media, where it’s not sure if she is the author or not.
What we do know is every vote Fernandes Anderson makes from here on out will be doubted. Will her votes be how she truly believes, or just an act? Will she look to flout the rules again?
As the State Ethics Commission posted to the Mass.gov site, Fernandes Anderson has “admitted to violating the conflict of interest law by hiring her sister and son to paid positions on her Boston City Council staff. Fernandes Anderson has signed a Disposition Agreement in which she admits the violations and agrees to pay a $5,000 civil penalty.”
That was from July and it’s now clear Fernandes Anderson does not serve the citizens of the city, or her District 7 constituents, in the same spirit as others in City Hall — and that’s a problem.
Police, firefighters, EMTs, lawyers, doctors, dentists, men and women in the military, teachers, journalists, authors, artists, scientists, and so many more follow a code of conduct they cherish, recite, or ascribe to.
The Tania Fernandes Andersons of the world just make the rest of us work harder! What a shame!
