Just One More Example...

... of how dimented the State of Nebraska is.

I got my new license plates yesterday. Yes, NEW license plates. For those of us who live in Nebraska this is a rite of passage that comes once every three years. We can't even go an Olympiad on the same plates-- and that is dictated by state law.

OK, I'm sure most people are saying-- big deal. (You know, So this is Nebraska-- BIG DEAL). New license plates are not that exciting. And they're right. But it's the idiocy that comes with it that gets my ire.

Of course, the natives (of Nebraska) will tell me, that I just don't understand how this state works. Wrong. Nebraskan's don't understand how the real world works.

I grew up in Illinois. And from the time I was born til the time we moved, the only time we got new plates was when we got a new car. No license plate changes for at least 14 years-- and if I'm not mistaken it was closer to 20 years without a change. And those plates were supposed to be a temporary design.

I can tell you what the license plates on each of our cars were in Illinois. Here, I don't bother memorizing because we'll just get new ones in three years. It's wasteful. There is no need for new plates that often. Then again, I have more complaints about these plates, so maybe being stuck with them for three years is not so bad.

First of all, the design of the plates sucks-- and I'm not even talking graphical, just sheer design. The lettering on these plates is bad. 'D's look like 'O's, which are almost discernable from 'Q's. I can only imagine the difficult a cop (like my brother) experiences while running someone's plates.

Of course my brother made another point. The new plates-- as well as many of the previous plates no longer have raised lettering. To start, it gives the plates the appearance that anyone could print them off on their home computers, and laminate the paper. And if you've seen the commercial truck plates here, its even scarier. But it goes beyond that.

What happens following a car fire? Often times the VIN number of the vehicle is melted or buried in the mangled wreckage. The only other identifying mark would be a license plate, and it's raised lettering. That is no longer possible.

When I last got new plates, three years ago, the big new innovation was a sticker which was to be placed at the bottom the plate, identifying what county I resided in. A sticker? If you really need to know what part of this god-forsaken state I'm from, at least you could have just printed the county on the plate-- like Iowa does. Instead, we got stickers, which didn't even last as long as a Jennifer Lopez marriage, and were as popular as the West Coast Offense in Lincoln. The stickers were discontinued.

The idea of identifying what county in Nebraska someone is from is pretty dumb. There are less than 2-million people in this state. Not everyone owns a car... and while some people own more than one car, I think it is safe to assume that the number of cars is not more than the population. (Please keep in mind that tractors would have plates that differ from cars).

Illinois, which has new plates within the past 5 years is currently in a 7-digit numbering system for their plates. Common sense (which is absent throughout most parts of Nebraska) tells us that those plate numbers range from 000-0000 to 999-9999. TEN MILLION POSSIBILITIES.

OK, there are 12-million people in Illinois. So, when those 10-million plates are gone, they'll move on to 1-letter, 6-digit plates-- TWENTY-SIX MILLION MORE POSSIBILITIES. When those are gone (over time) they'll go to 2-letter, 5-digit plates-- SIXTY-SEVEN MILLION MORE. As you can see, we are already approaching 100-million possible license plates, which helps explain how Illinois went 20 years without change.

100-million plates... if every Nebraskan bought a new car every year, that's 50 years before we run out of plate numbers. And Illinois does not use county identification to give them more use of numbers.

And the graphical design. For 20 years, Illinois was content with the same design. It wasn't eye-catching, it was simple, it looked good, and it identified where the car was from. Blue lettering for cars, red lettering for trucks, and green lettering for RVs. (Wow, 300-million possibilities). I'd prefer to have the old Illinois plates on my car over these god-awful pink and gold plates my car currently sports.

The new design for Nebraska is better, more subtle, less ugly, but still not great. But who cares. I don't need a pretty picture on my license plate. Simplicity works best.

My personal favourite plates, are in Colorado. I loved the green mountains on white plates. Then they reversed the design for a while (and I may have the order wrong)-- white mountains on a green plate. They've added some detail in a recent redesign, but it is still simplistic, easily identifiable, and easy to read.

As much as Nebraska football hate it when ABC shows pictures of cornfields and barns during broadcasts, why would we go out of our way to put barns and covered wagons on our license plates? I thought they wanted to rid themselves of that symbolism.

But I can't help but wonder how much money the state of Nebraska is wasting on license plates every three years. Couldn't this money be better spent on, oh-- I don't know, the state institutions of education? You get the money from us every year for stickers. Stickers are much cheaper than new plates (plus stickers). It's called financial planning. It's also called common sense: you might want to look into it.

Then again, why do I care? I'll have new plates in less than three years.