Our Opinion: Of crayfish, Wonder Dogs and state symbols

You may know Missouri's state tree, the flowering dogwood, but do you know the state invertebrate?

Did you even know Missouri has an official state invertebrate? It is the crayfish, also known as the crawfish or crawdad.

Those are only two of Missouri's 28 state symbols.

Additional state symbols - a Wonder Dog, a historical dog and a game animal - are under consideration this session.

Also proposed is legislation to end the practice by capping state symbols at the current number. The bill is sponsored by Rep. Tom Flanigan, R-Carthage.

State symbols are a frequent target of criticism by comparison, as in: Why are lawmakers talking about a state Wonder Dog when education funding, for example, remains an issue?

The criticism presupposes legislative time devoted to a state symbol will preclude discussion on more substantial issues.

That is not always, or often, the case. Lawmakers typically take up lower priority bills while awaiting higher priority issues to be advanced by committees or the other chamber.

In addition, state symbols at times have been proposed by students as class projects.

A problem with state symbols is they can become so specific and abundant that they become irrelevant or absurd.

Missouri's 28 state symbols are somewhere between the nation's least, Iowa's eight, and most, the 44 in Massachusetts.

Using criticism by comparison, Flanigan's proposal is hardly among the higher priorities this session. But the specific proposed state symbols share a similar low priority.

A time may come when capping the number of state symbols is necessary. For now, we're comfortable with judging each proposed state symbol on its merits - when time allows.