Happy Birthday, LFOD

Your humble blogging idjit forgot to blog the 200th anniversary of General Stark's toast:

Live free or die: Death is not the worst of evils.
… the first four words of which were adopted as New Hampshire's state motto in 1945, and has appeared on our license plates since 1971.

A number of people pointed with dismay (as did I) to the recent report of the "Governor's Task Force on Young Worker Retention", which uttered the modern rejoinder to General Stark's toast:
The Task Force received several comments regarding the issue of branding the state that would help attract and retrain young workers. Through input and discussions, there is strong sentiment that the "live free or die" slogan does not connect with this demographic and that something else is needed.
The general, having been born in 1728, was woefully unaware of the need to connect with the young-worker demographic. A couple years back, I suggested a replacement that fit in better with the times:
I'm a Loser, Baby, So Why Don't You Kill Me?
Beck's "down" with the youngsters, right? I bet he would let us have the rights to that, cheap.

The Union Leader would prefer not going that way:

The commission members might like to know that "Live free or die" is not a brand. It is not a marketing slogan to be modified for maximum appeal to the ever-changing 18- to 34-year-old demographic. It is a motto, which curmudgeonly old Webster's defines as "a sentence, phrase, or word inscribed on something as appropriate to or indicative of its character or use."

Nothing is more indicative of the character of New Hampshire than our great motto. It is not to be changed to please the ears of lost youth fickle enough to pick a home state because it has a catchy slogan.

Indeed. For other blogger comment, see Skip at Granite Grok, Chris Cameron at Clearly Political, and (I am not making this up) Mr. Pink Eyes at America's Watchtower.

Last Modified 2017-12-04 5:23 PM EDT