What happened to the Free State?

Posted by Marc Hodak on April 3, 2007 under Collectivist instinct | Read the First Comment

I’ve driven down to Maryland many, many times over the years. It’s where I’m from, and most of my family still lives there. At the Delaware border, there was a quaint sign saying “Welcome to Maryland – The Free State.”

Now, Maryland has a lot to recommend for it–lovely rivers, Chesapeake crabs, green hills as far as the eye can see. Freedom, not so much. Few states are bluer than Maryland. Marylanders love government, and not just because so many of them are federal workers. Their liberalism runs much deeper than that. For me,the only way to view the “Free State” motto on the welcome sign was with a sense of humor.

Well, the old motto is gone. Now the sign just says, “Maryland Welcomes You.” No pretense about freedom. In a way, the change represents a kind of truth in advertising. I just wonder if the bureaucrats who made the change were conscious of this truth?