This post may be a bit off in its timing and possibly would have made more sense last week. After all, now the discussion has been tabled, and this is not even an issue any more. But, I learned something new about Nebraska recently, and I feel that it is my duty to share it.
I learned that Nebraska is not the “Good Life” state. This is despite the fact that is what it says on our “Welcome to Nebraska” signs that you see whenever you enter our fine state. That saying is not even our motto (which is officially “Equality before the law” just in case you were wondering. Although I am pretty sure that if you broke the law even if involved equality that you could still go to jail.)
Anyway, “Nebraska: The Good Life” is only considered an unofficial slogan. The official one: “Nebraskaland: Where the West Begins.” One Nebraska state senator decided that saying really did not encapsulate all that Nebraska entails, so he brought forth a bill suggesting that we try again for a better slogan. Enter the controversy. But not in the way that you expect. Most people do not seem to care about the official slogan (I am a lifelong Nebraskan, and I had never even heard of that saying!). But they do care about losing “Nebraska: The Good Life” moniker. You know, the unofficial saying.
Evidently enough negative feedback was given that Nebraska tourism officials asked the bill to be dropped. Since they have been working on strategically “re-branding” Nebraska, they felt that changing the slogan was poor timing. So, we will remain unofficially the “Good Life” state, and our official slogan will be one that no one really knows.
If at some point they do decide that a new slogan is needed, another Nebraska blogger has compiled an excellent list of suggestions on his Feit Can Write site. His list was laugh-out loud funny, especially if you actually are from Nebraska. (Although I will say you may not want to automatically read them out to loud to your children without previewing first or to quote a well-known comedienne, you’ll have “some ‘splainin’ to do.” Maybe you are ready to tackle what illegal aliens are for one, but I am not. 🙂 ) Anyway, kudos to him for adding humor to a cold day! I do have but one potential slogan to add … “Nebraska: We put the Cool in Kool-aid.” Well, maybe we should stick with “The Good Life” at least unofficially …
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