LICENSE PLATES SERVE PURPOSE

A debate is raging in Missouri over possible changes to the state's license plates. In one camp are the mule people. Emboldened by their successful campaign to name the mule Missouri's official animal, they now want mules on the state license plates. In other camps are backers of the state bird -- the bluebird -- and the state tree -- the flowering dogwood -- on Missouri licenses plates.

There doesn't seem to be much interest in putting the fiddle, the official state musical instrument, the honeybee, the state insect, or even the crinoid, which of course is the official state fossil, on the Missouri license plates. Another year, perhaps.

As raging debates go, this one is pretty trite. For 17 years, Missouri has done just fine with its white-on-maroon, "Show-Me State" plates. But a state committee decided it is time to spruce them up and has held meetings around the state to get residents' ideas on a new plate design. The committee is to unveil the new plate in April, and the state would begin issuing them starting next year.

The idea is that a state's license plate ought to somehow promote the state, a traveling tourist brochure if you will. But although mules, bluebirds and dogwoods are the stuff of Missouri's history and beauty, license plates serve a distinct, albeit, unglamorous function.

Col. Fred Mills, superintendent of the Missouri Highway Patrol and chairman of the special license plate committee, explained that function when committee members admired one license design -- brown dogwood branches and a white blossom at the top of a plate that gradually fades from light blue to white. In the center is a blue picture of the state. The word "Missouri" is red, with a dogwood blossom as the letter "O." The other letters and numbers are blue and black.

Pretty yes, but as Col. Mills explained, it might have too much detail for spotting numbers easily. In other words, the plate no longer would serve its intended function: to allow quick and easy identification of a motor vehicle.

With more and more states adopting similarly complex designs for their license plates, designers in Missouri could be truly bold and unique. They could suggest we keep the current motif and its testament to the reliable consistency of Missourians, who, rather than embrace the latest in trendy chic, stand firm and assert: "Show me," in this case, that there really is a good reason for tinkering with the state's license plates.