Six Words

Over at the NYT, the Freakonomics blog has a contest going: Come up with a Six-Word Motto for the United States. As of this moment, they've got 839 entries so far with, I'm sure, many more to come. If you didn't know this was going on, by all means, click on over and read.

As you can see, some are funny, some are patriotic and a whole bunch are pretty snarky, so much so that James Lileks responds thusly:

Love of country must always be qualified these days, lest anyone think you are unaware of slavery, insufficiently regulated railroad stock offerings, Lester Maddox or the attempt by Philip Morris to conceal the addictive nature of cigarettes. Say “I love this country” at a dinner table with strangers, and it’s like shave and a haircut without the two bits. But? But? We are an exceptional nation, to be sure, but you can’t leave it at that. We are exceptionally misguided, exceptionally lazy and xenophobic, shot through to the pith with bilious perfidy, and our sole redeeming quality is our ability to constantly remake ourselves. We’ll either perfect society so we can perfect human nature, or do it the other way around. Either’s fine. Whatever works.

As always, you should read the whole thing. And, for what it's worth, here's my motto:

America: Land of Freedom and Opportunity.

That's what it is to me.