By Patricia Singletary
There is a particular injustice going on in America that has bothered me for a very long time, and I think it’s far past time to have a serious discussion about it. North Carolina’s license plate motto is completely ridiculous!
This motto, “First in Flight”, is on every North Carolina state sanctioned license plate, and worse, I am forced to see it even here in Florida.
During such times, I’ll be minding my own business and–boom–I’m sent into a nonsensical rage over the grave offense done by a stupid license plate. This hatred has even made me insult the boyfriend of a friend as I went on a rant similar to this one in front of him, not knowing that North Carolina is his ancestral homeland.
I hate the phrase, “First in Flight,” so much because the state is taking credit for something the Wright brothers accomplished, not North Carolina, and that they try to do so is a travesty that seems to me well beyond the scope of any other.
There is a great wrong being done here. Orville and Wilbur Wright were the two brothers who are credited with making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight on Dec. 17, 1903 four miles south of Kitty Hawk, N.C.
While they were not the first people to attempt aviation, they were the first to invent aircraft controls that made fixed-wing powered flight possible. But the Wright brothers are not even from that state! They are from Ohio, which rightfully has the motto, “Birthplace of Aviation,” on its license plates!
North Carolina’s appeal was that it does have an environment that Ohio cannot offer, which are the Outer Banks. The Outer Banks are barrier islands off North Carolina’s coast that boast steady winds and isolated beaches.
This is why the Wright brothers took their legendary flight on a beach near the town Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks.
It was the best location for their experiments. So clearly, the only reason this state had any contribution to the invention of flight at all was the natural environment of the barrier islands right off their coast.
The state government cannot take responsibility for convenient borders. Furthermore, this was not a state funded venture, but rather an experiment done by two entrepreneurs who were only in North Carolina for the strong winds.
So why is this touted as the state’s biggest accomplishment?
Perhaps North Carolina could replace this ridiculous slogan with, “We Hate the Gays!”, at least that one is accurate.
