Editor’s note: Several readers reacted to a brief on the state’s new design for a license plate, which includes the motto:
To the editor:
Overall, I like the new plate with the Anglicized motto. I liked the colors of the previous one better but color costs more, I suppose. This is the fifth plate in +/- 15 years. Why does it keep changing? The single sticker will be nice.
— Elizabeth Bagby, Charleston, S.C.
To the editor:
“While I breath, I hope”???? Come on, couldn’t you come up with something a little more realistic? For all people of S.C.?
It seems like the government is telling the people of the state what to think. I don’t hope for anything. I DO! Back to those with their hands out, hoping for someone to fill it for them. I’m sick of S.C. I’m sick of government. I’m sick of being told what to do, what to think, etc.
Enough, is enough. I will be the one with the white tape over the state motto on my plates.
— Paul Schaubhut, Ridgeville, S.C.
Editor’s note: The state adopted the motto in 1776. More.
To the editor:
When I saw the motto, I just sighed. There are so many wonderful things about South Carolina, including the people. It is a constant frustration to me that our politicians leave so many with nothing but hope.
— Agnes Pomato, Wadmalaw Island, S.C.
To the editor:
The issue is not which tag looks better as it is not an art contest. The sunset tags were quite colorful but law enforcement had a hard time making out the letters and numbers.
Hopefully moving towards a standard tag and away from the go-zillion combinations of colors and designs with the specialty tags, coupled with a clearly contrasting but nice color scheme, will make the tags more visible to law enforcement, which is their main function. Colorful artwork supporting any cause can go on the bumper in the form of a sticker.
Thanks and, as always, I enjoy the weekly update,
— Steve Willis, Lancaster, S.C.
To the editor:
I believe the motto should have been left in the original Latin, “Dum spiro, spero.” It looks like we are too dumb as South Carolinians to know what our state motto is unless we really spell it out for ourselves. If our forefathers had wanted it in English, they would have written it in English. This is disrespectful to them and to us the living because it presumes our ignorance. Maybe, as dumb as we are, we should anglicize all our Latin mottos—”e pluribus unum,” anybody?
This begs the question, why write such documents or mottos in Latin in the first place? My guess: Latin was spoken, at least as the diplomatic language understood by all, by an astounding number of people under the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. It was spoken in Europe, Britain, the Middle East and Northern Africa. If you were a sophisticated contributor to the society, you spoke Latin. Until just recently in history, Rome was probably the most influential society that ever existed. Much of our modern law and societal conventions, even much of our current modern languages, emanate from Rome. During more recent history the study of Rome, its institutions and Latin was a sign of sophistication, education and a realization that we are at one end of a very long continuum of civilization. Latin was once almost mandatory for a well-rounded education. Use of this now “dead” language puts us in a kind of context—we strive to be as great as Rome.
So, translating that history and sophistication and tradition back into the common language is a kind of rejection of what it stands for. I, for one, see it as a step backward. Poor South Carolina. It doesn’t even know what it’s state motto is unless we really make it simple.
— Sam Griswold, Columbia, S.C.
To the editor:
They must think we’re too “Dum” to use the Latin!
— Charlie Smith, Charleston, S.C.
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