State Slogan Envy

It's never good to envy your neighbor. But I admit it... as a Vermonter, I've always been a bit jealous of New Hampshire. Not because of their mountains (although they are higher...). Or because I think they're a better state (I don't -- after all, what's New Hampshire but Vermont upside-down?).

Rather, I have always secretly envied their state slogan -- Live Free or Die. The truth is, Vermont's slogan -- Freedom and Unity -- has always seemed just a bit... tame... in comparison to our neighbor's more in-your-face mantra.

That is, until some college kids came to our town and started a new farm. "Have you been to the F.U.?" everyone kept asking.

Once I realized I wasn't being flipped off, I always answered the same: "What's the F.U.?"

It's the "Freedom and Unity Farm" located on Bridge Street in Richmond -- otherwise known as the F.U. The emergence of Richmond's F.U. has given me a whole new perspective on Vermont's motto -- which I now love.

The motto originally appeared on the official seal of the Republic of Vermont (above) in 1788. Ira Allen drew the seal and is generally credited with the motto too. Ethan Allen, founder of the Green Mountain Boys, had appealed repeatedly to the Continental Congress for admission into the union, but they shot him down. So I enjoy picturing the Allen brothers settling upon this motto as a little wave to the rest of the neighborhood. And kudos to Tom Chittenden and the rest of the 14th state's founding fathers for holding onto the slogan.

So F.U., New Hampshire. Who needs your tired old slogan anyway?