After three years of meetings and $100,000 later, a 20-member special commission still failed to come up with a replacement for the Massachusetts state seal.

Everyone would have been better off if they had simply chosen a turkey and called it a day. It could have been announced today, Turkey Day.

Don’t laugh. Benjamin Franklin, back in 1784 allegedly thought the turkey should have been adopted as the country’s national bird but was beaten out by the bald eagle, which is on the national Great Seal.

And if you are wondering if Massachusetts has a state bird, the answer is yes. It is not the much-maligned turkey or the bald eagle but the chickadee, which was adopted in 1941 as the state bird although nobody knows why.

The Massachusetts state seal, which the commission was supposed to change, is composed of a Native American holding a bow in one hand and an arrow in the other. Above him is an arm holding a sword.

Draped around the image is the Latin motto that translates into “By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty.”

The modern version of the seal has been used on state documents and on the state flag that flies over state buildings for more than 100 years.

Some social justice warriors found the seal objectionable and offensive to Native Americans following the national outrage after the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

That was the period when protestors rioted, trashed and toppled Confederate statues and other racist and alleged discriminatory symbols.

Things got so bad that even moderate Gov. Charlie Baker succumbed to pressure and removed the only Confederate memorial in the state that nobody even knew existed, let alone visited.

It was a granite memorial erected in 1963 by the Boston chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy marking 13 young Confederate farm boys who died horrible deaths while imprisoned at Fort Warren on Georges Island in Boston Harbor.

The madness is not over.  A pair of progressive legislators have filed legislation banning the remaining 23 schools in Massachusetts from using the image or name of a Native American as a logo or mascot on their teams.

That aside, a solid case can be made for adopting the turkey as the state seal.

Not that I have anything against the current state seal, mind you. Over the years I have obtained or been gifted a pair of state seal cuff links, a state seal tie clip, and a set of highball glasses with the state seal embedded on each.

The items have become collector items of sorts, though, since men do not wear cuff link shirts anymore, do not wear neckties, and do not even know what a highball is. (Hint: it is not a drug or something a baseball pitcher throws.)

Talking turkey, the problem for the turkey becoming the state seal is that it has been given a bum rap over the years.

Its unfair negative reputation stems from critics describing a failed Broadway theatrical production “a turkey.”

The term later — and currently — is used to describe in a derogatory way anything, like a car, that flops, or anyone who is ungainly, stupid or slow, like a politician.

Like: “That guy I voted for turned out to be a real turkey.”  Or “I’ll never vote for that turkey again.” Or “Did you hear what that turkey said?”

It can be confusing at times, though. For instance, one would never say, having bought a bad turkey, “That turkey I bought turned out to be a real turkey.”

But you could say, after all the Thanksgiving Day political arguments are over and the guests have left, “What a bunch of turkeys they were.”

They say that turkeys are stupid birds. Perhaps they are.

But when a politician talks nonsense, we imitate turkeys and call what they say “gobbledygook.” So, how smart are we?

Peter Lucas is a veteran Massachusetts political reporter and columnist