Bloggers question, praise state emblems

Foxhounds, box turtles and state songs, oh my: Virginia’s blogosphere has come out in full force, reacting to several state designations proposed this year.

State designations identify a state’s significant features in categories such as animal, plant and song. Designations usually have historic significance to the state and its citizens.

Virginia already has designated 23 different emblems in the Code of Virginia. The American foxhound, for instance, is Virginia’s state dog — much to the displeasure of one blogger.

“I must have missed Virginia’s long and storied Fox hunting tradition,” wrote Captain Obvious, author of This Town Needs an Enema blog. “So, obviously, this dog has got to go.”

Senate Bill 1504 would have made the Eastern box turtle Virginia’s state reptile. But the House squashed the idea Friday on a 28-69 vote.

“(The Eastern box turtle) selection will certainly bring greater attention to the potential loss of this very beautiful and certainly unique member of the reptile family that has made its home in Virginia,” wrote Dennis Desmond, author of the HerpTechnology blog.

Numerous bills have been proposed this session to change the state song emeritus, “Carry Me Back to Old Virginia,” which was adopted in 1940.

Since the song was dropped as the official state song in 1997, no other suggested songs have successfully passed through the General Assembly.

The song was retired because the lyrics represented Virginia’s history of slavery.

“We’ll know (the song) when we see it,” House Majority Leader H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, told The Virginian Pilot.

Craig Orndorff, who authors the blog On the Western Banks of the Shenandoah, wrote that state designations bills are frivolous.

“Who knows what ridiculousness could be found throughout the stack of bills. I’m not saying that legislators should not be allowed to discuss things if they so please – it is their right, ultimately, to set their own boundaries,” Orndorff stated. “Representatives should think about just why they are in Richmond.”

-David Baker, Capital News Service

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