Earlier today I sent the following letter to Tim Steller, a columnist for the Arizona Star, one of more thoughtful journalists in the state, in the hope that he would find it of interest:

Dear Tim:

So the Arizona State legislature finished up their business a couple of weeks ago, with a flurry of bills. Governor Brewer once again proved to be a responsible adult and vetoed the more egregious of them, mostly commenting that the State already had provisions to prevent/protect (depending) its citizens from whatever was being proposed, including two controversial gun bills, one allowing open carry of guns into public buildings and events, and another that would have made local officials personally liable for passing gun statutes that are more restrictive than the state’s. She also vetoed a bill that would have required that President Obama and other presidential candidates to offer proof of their US citizenship before their names could appear on the ballot.

So, clearly, our legislators in Phoenix need to find something else to keep them busy, other than attempting to pass bills extending the presence of guns, restricting the reproductive choices of women, reducing state expenditures on education, and/or transferring state funds out of public education, diverting it to private choices at a rate higher than public expenditures.

I’d propose that we put the Arizona State Motto — Ditat Deus (“God enriches”) — on the chopping block for changing. First off, it’s in an elitist — and dead — language, Latin. Secondly, it flat out states that God is responsible for increasing the riches of the state. Separation of church and state aside, while we may believe in, rely on, put our faith in God, thirdly we God-fearing, free-living, independent Arizonans would have to reject the notion that enrichment comes from anywhere other than the sweat off our hard-working backs. As Tina Turner might have said, “What does God have to do with it, do with it…”

Yes, we need a new motto that accurately reflects that reality of the Arizonan political landscape of today. Now, my first thought after living here a brief period was “Arizona — The Mississippi of the Southwest, but with greater firepower”. Now this motto hits on all cylinders: it points out that Arizona nears dead-last in the US with Mississippi on a number of social fronts — children living in poverty, unemployment rate, gun deaths per 100,000 (where Mississippi beats us out), even cost of living (Biloxi is more expensive than Phoenix) — but it is of course far too long to fit on any State Seal, and it would appear that Mississippi has even greater (or more accurate) firepower than Arizona.

So while I encourage others to offer their own suggestion, I offer one, in three forms:

Keeping with the Latin: Arizona: Stulti Cum Tormenta
Or German (recognizing the strong German settler heritage): Arizona: Bewaffnete Dummköpfe
Or English: Arizona: Idiots With Guns

I’d offer Spanish as well, but given the general antipathy to the Latino population here among those who govern us, that would probably be a non-starter, and is left to the reader to translate as an exercise.

I hope that you will join me in suggesting this as a future agenda item to Governor Brewer and Andy Biggs, President of the Arizona State Senate.

Sincerely,

Jim Coleman