The National Flower

The rose was officially declared the American flower, back when I was in high school, in 1986. It's also the national floral emblem, whatever that means. It wasn't enough just to have a flower, we have to have a floral emblem, too. That's how it works here.

The truth, however, is that the rose, native to North America, has taken a backseat to our real national flower -- the cloverleaf:



This one is particularly symmetrical, something I personally value. The thing is, all four corners are abutted by suburban sprawl, which is wholly non-symmetrical. Perhaps that's the real reason I don't like sprawl, that I can't find the center, the edge...maybe if we built symmetrical sprawl I'd better tolerate it.

In fact, I guarantee I'd better tolerate it, because I think it's a far more efficient use of land. Secondly, to enforce symmetry, streets would most certainly remain straight, and if we had more T-intersections we'd have slower moving vehicles. Not to mention a hundred different ways to get from B to A instead of dead 4-lane collector roads and 6-lane expressways.

As we're forcibly evicting people out of these non-symmetrical suburban housal units they are failing to pay for, perhaps they might be able to take up urban gardening in each of those four "leafs" in the highway interchange. Perhaps they might even plant roses on the margins, and further beautify Merika.