"He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something)." Erik Keilholtz
Under the patronage of St. Tammany
Mark C. N. Sullivan is an editor at a Massachusetts university. He is married and the father of three children. Email
What slogan would you pick to describe Massachusetts? The state's Office of Travel and Tourism is looking for a "concise and memorable" phrase to paint a picture of the Commonwealth, the previous one from the Dukakis era, "The Spirit of Massachusetts is the Spirit of America," having been recognized as a banality worthy of the ICEL. A contest to choose a new slogan is underway, with entries being taken through July 31 here.
Now I am a traditionalist when it comes to the totems of the home of the bean and the cod. I think the license plate should carry a picture of the fish that built New England and the nation, as it once did. And I lament that PC schoolchildren in Amherst were allowed to dictate the removal, on grounds of "sensitivity," the removal of the arrow through the Mass Pike pilgrim's hat.
Some over at Mark Shea's place might have some ideas on a fitting slogan for the Bay State. ("Come for the fumes of self-righteous liberalism, stay for the taxes"?)
But given the fortunes of the Red Sox, Cardinal Law, today's Ivy League intellectuals, various Kennedys, and governors from Michael Dukakis to Jane Swift, I'd choose the plaintive utterance of the leaf-skirted Indian on the original seal of the Massachusetts Bay Company: "Come over and help us."
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