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Lawmakers hiccup with proposal for state beer
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A proposal to designate Budweiser as the official beer of Missouri is among the more ludicrous ideas advanced this legislative session.
Some legislative observers believe time and effort spent designating state symbols is wasteful.
We don't necessarily share that view.
State symbols traditionally have been nominated by students, and legislative discussion during the four-month session typically occurs during lulls in legislative activity.
We are unaware of any situation where consideration of vital legislation was crowded out by debate over a proposed state symbol.
Our objection to the Budweiser designation is that it is product specific.
No other state symbol is product specific, or even created by a single manufacturer.
Missouri's 24 state symbols include: Galena, state mineral; fiddle, state musical instrument; Missouri mule, state animal; channel catfish, state fish; and North American bullfrog, state amphibian.
The state grape - the Norton/Cynthiana grape - is the nearest to being product specific, but only because a number of Missouri wineries produce a Norton wine made from the namesake grape.
Which raises the question about whether any alcoholic beverage deserves to be elevated to the stature of state symbol
In the final analysis, designating a commercial product as a state symbol is poor public policy.
And it may lead to the proverbial slippery slope. Could the Ford Escape manufactured at the Claycomo plant become the official state vehicle? Could one of the Harry Potter books produced by Scholastic become the state novel? Could Unilever's Close-Up become the official state toothpaste?
Six lawmakers are co-sponsoring the proposal to designate Budweiser as the official state beer. As far as we know, the idea was not initiated by a group of students. Thank goodness for that.
The origin of the idea gives evidence that young people sometimes think more clearly than the adults who govern them.
Some legislative observers believe time and effort spent designating state symbols is wasteful.
We don't necessarily share that view.
State symbols traditionally have been nominated by students, and legislative discussion during the four-month session typically occurs during lulls in legislative activity.
We are unaware of any situation where consideration of vital legislation was crowded out by debate over a proposed state symbol.
Our objection to the Budweiser designation is that it is product specific.
No other state symbol is product specific, or even created by a single manufacturer.
Missouri's 24 state symbols include: Galena, state mineral; fiddle, state musical instrument; Missouri mule, state animal; channel catfish, state fish; and North American bullfrog, state amphibian.
The state grape - the Norton/Cynthiana grape - is the nearest to being product specific, but only because a number of Missouri wineries produce a Norton wine made from the namesake grape.
Which raises the question about whether any alcoholic beverage deserves to be elevated to the stature of state symbol
In the final analysis, designating a commercial product as a state symbol is poor public policy.
And it may lead to the proverbial slippery slope. Could the Ford Escape manufactured at the Claycomo plant become the official state vehicle? Could one of the Harry Potter books produced by Scholastic become the state novel? Could Unilever's Close-Up become the official state toothpaste?
Six lawmakers are co-sponsoring the proposal to designate Budweiser as the official state beer. As far as we know, the idea was not initiated by a group of students. Thank goodness for that.
The origin of the idea gives evidence that young people sometimes think more clearly than the adults who govern them.
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