# A New National Motto? United We Stand **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 21, 2004, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411 "2004-06-21T05:20:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TJdude825](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dec6dc/32.png) [@TJdude825](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TJdude825)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/21 "2004-06-22T01:08:22Z")
I agree that “In God we trust” shouldn’t be our national motto. But I also agree with **Zagadka** ’s points about democracy and diversity. I’m not sure what would be a good replacement for “In God we trust” but I found [this list](http://www.phatnav.com/wiki/wiki.phtml?title=List_of_state_mottos) of mottos for other countries, which could perhaps provide inspiration if someone wanted to make one up. Looking through it though, they all sound a bit empty (for lack of a better word) IMO, so I wonder if we really need a motto at all. Anyone here lived in or visited a mottoless country? Do they get along well without one? ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/22 "2004-06-22T01:13:43Z")
New USA Motto: “Motto? We don’t need no stinkin’ motto!” ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/23 "2004-06-22T01:29:42Z")
“What’s a motto?” “I don’t know. What’s a motto with you?” Please. Don’t bother. I’ll take care of it. _smack_ ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/24 "2004-06-22T01:31:09Z")
I’d be against “United We Stand” because idiots would be constantly using it as a rallying cry to make other idiots support the president no matter what damn fool thing he wants to do. “You’re against invading Blargifargistan? Don’t ya know our motto is ‘United We Stand’? We’re supposed to be UNITED behind our president!” We have plenty enough of that bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Imran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7feea3/32.png) [@Imran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imran)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/25 "2004-06-22T01:39:10Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > I’d be against “United We Stand” because idiots would be constantly using it as a rallying cry to make other idiots support the president no matter what damn fool thing he wants to do. “You’re against invading Blargifargistan? Don’t ya know our motto is ‘United We Stand’? We’re supposed to be UNITED behind our president!” We have plenty enough of that bullshit. Because our country name doesn’t suggest that at all? Anyway, on topic, I suggest “FOOTBALL IS OURS, _YOU_ CHANGE” – Imran ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/26 "2004-06-22T02:13:10Z")
> [@Imran](#): > > Because our country name doesn’t suggest that at all? It doesn’t to me. I always thought ‘United’ in USA as meaning simply all under the same legal jurisdiction of the federal gov’t. It never once occurred to me that might mean “united” as in “United We Stand”. ---
**Author:** ![emekthian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecae2f/32.png) [@emekthian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emekthian)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/27 "2004-06-22T04:12:33Z")
How about _Puellae formae sunt bonos_? I think we can all agree on that. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/28 "2004-06-22T04:23:16Z")
‘Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world.’ pretty much says it all right there. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/29 "2004-06-22T04:36:44Z")
Fabricatum diem, punc. with profound apologies to Pterry… ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/30 "2004-06-22T04:52:08Z")
‘SPQR’ has already been used, and doesn’t really fit. ‘SPQA’ would look snazzy on the front glacis of a M1 Abrams… ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/31 "2004-06-22T05:54:49Z")
At this stage in our history, the most fitting national motto would be: “You got a better idea?” ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/32 "2004-06-22T07:27:30Z")
> [@Brutus](#): > > ‘SPQR’ has already been used, and doesn’t really fit. ‘SPQA’ would look snazzy on the front glacis of a M1 Abrams… If you want something to inspire our conquering heroes. “When Come Back, Bring Pie” sets the right tone. How’s that written in latin? ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/33 "2004-06-22T07:48:02Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > If you want something to inspire our conquering heroes. “When Come Back, Bring Pie” sets the right tone. How’s that written in latin? According to my handy-dandy pocket dictionary: _Cum Redeo, Addo Laganum_ Laganum is listed as ‘cake’, but the Romans appear to have had no pie. Certainly explains the bloody gladiator stuff. Unfortunately, if we were to inscribe ‘CRAL’ on our tanks, it may get mistaken for [Krull](http://imdb.com/title/tt0085811/), which probably has just been released in the theaters in Afghanistan and Iraq. They may then think that Americans live in a huge fortress that teleports around, and all sorts of problems may ensue. Rather, I recommend: \*Cum Redeo, Addo Pumilio \* (When come back, bring dwarves.) Certainly nothing can go wrong with that plan, and we get to see ‘CRAP’ written all over the place. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/34 "2004-06-22T07:52:21Z")
“Where Oil Goes To Die”, possibly? “E pluribus, _Seinfeld_” ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/35 "2004-06-22T16:24:46Z")
> [@TJdude825](#): > > I found [this list](http://www.phatnav.com/wiki/wiki.phtml?title=List_of_state_mottos) of mottos for other countries, which could perhaps provide inspiration if someone wanted to make one up. Looking through it though, they all sound a bit empty (for lack of a better word) IMO, so I wonder if we really need a motto at all. Anyone here lived in or visited a mottoless country? Do they get along well without one? Yes, most of my life I’ve lived in Australia, which thankfully has no motto. Within Australia, I lived in New South Wales, which has a motto that hardly anyone knows and no one understands (“Orta recens quam pura nites”), so it might as well not have a motto. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/36 "2004-06-22T16:33:41Z")
United we stand, financially divided we all fall… 😃 - Jinx ---
**Author:** ![Mehitabel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/37 "2004-06-22T16:34:35Z")
“You talking to us?!” “Feeling lucky, punks?” “What the hell are YOU staring at?!” \ Or, if you want to go sunshine and lollipops, “Can’t we all just get along” “Mostly harmless” “We try harder” or my choice, from Phil Foglio’s BUCK GODOT comics; it took place in a future where humans had colonized a bunch of planets and lived in a sort of Federation with other species. There was a gigantic space station that had embassies from all the home planets, and Humanity’s motto, emblazoned on the front of the building, was just “Let’s Be Pals!” ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/38 "2004-06-22T16:49:48Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > If you want something to inspire our conquering heroes. “When Come Back, Bring Pie” sets the right tone. How’s that written in latin? I dunno. “All Your Base Are Belong To Us” seems to be closer to the current Administration’s philosophy. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/39 "2004-06-22T17:49:32Z")
So I first thought of a smartass response here and looked up the slogan for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books: _Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandos_. And then I sort of parsed it out and it’s not so bad. Roughly: Never tickle a sleeping dragon. Sort of a motto **and** a warning to those who would irritate us. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411/40 "2004-06-22T18:35:14Z")
> [@](#): > > Never tickle a sleeping dragon. Not so different from the “Don’t Tread On Me” motto of the old revolutionary flags. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-new-national-motto-united-we-stand/251411.md?page=3)