Say whatever else you want about Wisconsin, it has the best state motto in the entire U.S. of A.: Forward! It's so good that it's worth saying once more with boldface feeling: Forward!
I was having dinner with some fellow Midwesterners awhile back, and we talked about coming to Boston and suddenly seeing all these New Hampshire license plates with their "motto": Live Free or Die. Don't get me wrong--I'm very fond of living free myself. However, as part of my general opposition to capital punishment and committment to civil liberties, I believe that if a person does not wish to live free, the State should not step in and kill them, and I believe New Hampshire should not be using its license plates to threaten innocent motorists.
True story.
ReplyDeleteIt's 1996, and I'm in Madison for the first time. We're at the Farmers' Market, and I remember noticing that the doors into the State Capitol each have the word FORWARD on their handles. And I thought it meant that the doors had to be pushed OPEN.
Yeah, I can't compete with that. I was born in Florida (Motto: "In God we trust," meaning "we can't even bother to think up one of our own") and now live in Missouri (Motto: "Salus populi lex suprema esto," meaning "We know you think we're a bunch of ignorant hicks, so we'll have a Latin motto for a little class").
ReplyDeleteIs no one going to mention that this post is dated IN THE FUTURE? The date is tomorrow's? Anyone? Anyone?
ReplyDeleteI added a disclaimer regarding the timestamps to my sidebar a few months ago.
ReplyDeleteI heard New Hampshire was going to merge with Vermont and the new state license plate will read "Live Free or Whatever."
ReplyDeleteThanks, I'm here all week. Try the veal.