When I first came to the United States of America more than 30 years ago, I was naturally curious about things that were 
very different from what I was used to in Sri Lanka. The ‘American accent,’ I knew was different and it took me a while to get used to it. There were things that I just couldn’t get and things that really fascinated me. Like vehicle number plates, or ‘license plates’ as they were called.
I can’t recall what made me notice them. I was struck by the fact that vehicles registered in different states had unique signatures. The backgrounds were different but this didn’t catch my attention as much as the taglines.
Since I was living in Massachusetts at the time, most vehicles were from that state. A large number were from the New England region, so I did catch the mottos, let’s say, of Connecticut (Constitution State), Maine (Vacation Land), New Hampshire (Live Free or Die), Rhode Island (Ocean State) and Vermont (Green Mountain State). New York wasn’t too far away, so I got to see the ‘Empire State’ signature as well. Massachusetts plates had ‘Spirit of America.’
This was pre-internet, note. I couldn’t look these up online. I had to depend on chance sightings of out-of-state vehicles and memory. I did travel a bit so at one point I knew what was written on the license plates of probably half the states.
This is about Pennsylvania. Officially, ‘The Keystone State,’ Pennsylvania cars did have that on the license plates, but the legend on the majority of vehicles from that state that I noticed was ‘You’ve got a friend in Pennsylvania.’
Warm, I thought. Welcoming.
Now, back in the USA and resident in Philadelphia these days, I hardly see vehicles from New England. It’s mostly Pennsylvania with a sizable number of vehicles from New Jersey (Garden State) and some from New York (Empire State).
I am yet to see ‘You’ve got a friend in Pennsylvania.’ I am yet to see ‘Keystone State.’ Instead, there’s ‘visitPA.com.’ An invitation, yes, but not welcoming, not warm, and nothing to tell me why I should be visiting PA (the letters that precede the 2213 Pennsylvania zip codes — and yes, I got that from the net, the number not the letters) assuming I was in some other state and had seen a Pennsylvania number plate.
Why, I wondered. Why had they changed it? Why should I visit PA or Pennsylvania? It’s like saying ‘I am good.’ It’s as if the point needs to be made in order to dispel any suspicion of me being bad. It’s like saying ‘Buy this.’ Or ‘that.’ Or ‘something else.’ Buy, but we won’t tell you why you should buy it; buy it because we say you should. Something like that. There’s a dash of arrogance there.
The plates of New Mexico (Land of Enchantment), West Virginia (Wild, Wonderful), Arizona (Grand Canyon State), Minnesota (10,000 Lakes), South Dakota (Great Faces, Great Places), Washington (Evergreen State) and even Kentucky (Bluegrass State) are advertisements. There’s something that makes one curious, makes one think about visiting. ‘Virginia is for Lovers,’ is cute while Kentucky’s ‘In God We Trust’ made me think, ‘Um…okaaaay…’ Not compelling enough. You have your beliefs, I have mine and anyway, what you believe is not what makes someone want to visit you, is it?
Pennsylvania. I’ve got friends in Pennsylvania. They are warm, friendly, decent people. ‘You’ve got a friend in Pennsylvania,’ is something else. It would tell me something like this, ‘don’t worry if you don’t know anyone in Pennsylvania, we have friendship and warmth and you won’t feel like a stranger.’
‘visitPA.com’? Nah.
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