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In late April, a federal appeals court ruled that the
official motto of the state of Ohio -- With God, all
things are possible
-- violated the first amendment of
the federal constitution.
The relevant provision of the Bill of Rights, known as
the establishment clause, is that Congress shall make no
law respecting an establishment of religion.
The courts have usual held that expressions of general
religious sentiment (like In God we trust
prominently printed on the root of all evil) do not violate
the establishment clause.
But in the Ohio case, the motto is almost a direct quote from the biblical book of Matthew. In the court's view, that made it too connected to a specific religious belief, and therefore a violation of the establishment clause.
As a firm believer in separation of church and state, I suppose I should find this heartening, although I think it really demonstrates that there is some merit to Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Green span's fears about the economy being too strong. Only in a country too prosperous for its own good would people have the resources to worry about a state motto.
On account of last year's horror, most Colorado residents could tell you that the official state flower is the columbine. A fair number could, if pressed, produce the blue spruce as the state tree and the bighorn sheep as the official state large mammal, as opposed to the insect, fish, fossil and bird, along with an official state dance.
But who pays any attention to a state motto, let alone
enough attention to feel oppressed by one? To put this
another way, if the official Colorado state motto were
Only those who regularly sacrifice bulls to Poseidon
will go to the Elysian Fields in the afterlife,
would
anyone notice?
Even though English is the Official Language of the
State of Colorado, our Official State Motto is in Latin:
Nil Sine Numine,
which translates to Nothing
without providence
or Nothing without deity.
Neither version seems to hold much in the way of specific religious content, so we're probably safe from a lawsuit unless the current economic growth cycle continues for three or four more years.
That appears to be the case for our neighbors as well.
The Friendship
of Texas, Utah's Industry,
Wyoming's Equal Rights
and Nebraska's Equality
before the law
aren't even vaguely religious, although
environmentalists might take issue with the Beehive State's
one-word motto.
New Mexico's Crescit Eundo
(It grows as it goes)
doesn't appear to express a religious sentiment. For that
matter, it doesn't appear to say much of anything, but
maybe it's a local saying like manana
(formally,
morning
or tomorrow,
but in practice, not
today,
and an admirable sentiment in either case) or
Things happen when they happen,
expressions I have
often heard in the Land of Enchantment.
Capitalists might have trouble with Oklahoma's motto,
Labor Omnia Vincit
(Labor conquers all things), and
those of us who prefer to stay earthbound should avoid
Kansas with its Ad Astra per Aspera
(To the stars
through difficulties), which sounds more like the motto of
the paparazzi guild than of a state of the union,
anyway.
Idaho's Esto Perpetua
(It is perpetual) could
trouble some religious people who do not believe that any
human construction could be eternal, but on the other hand,
we don't know what the it
is in it is
perpetual.
Maybe the perpetual part comes from neighboring Montana,
with its Oro y plata
(Gold and silver), which are
certainly of perpetual human interest. That's also the
only state motto I found that was in Spanish. The others
are in English or Latin, except for Minnesota, which goes
by the French L'Etoile du Nord
(the star of the
north).
The most pertinent of the lot comes from Michigan: Si
Quaeris Peninsulam Amoenam, Curcumspice.
(If you seek a
pleasant peninsula, look about you.)
Some critics have said this sounds more like a real-estate sales pitch than the motto of a self-governing people, but that's the reason we should keep it in mind, just in case someone does sue over Nil Sine Numine and a federal court orders Colorado to find a new slogan.
All we'll have to do is translate If you seek an
overpriced parcel with no reliable water supply in one of
our many Stupid Zones where the wildfires can get you if
the bears and rattlers don't, just look around you
into
Latin, and we can then turn our attention to something that
matters.
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