Florida's redesigned driver license and ID card, which state service centers began issuing at the end of September, carries a phrase on its back that is drawing objections from an Orlando-area legislator.
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles says on its website that the new card "pays homage to Florida's rich history." The front shows Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, a manatee in the lower left corner, an orange forming the "O" in Florida and an alligator inside the REAL ID star.
The back shows the space shuttle Discovery along with the words "Let Us Alone," which the department describes as coming from Florida's first unofficial flag.
State Rep. RaShon Young, a Democrat from Orlando, called the use of the motto "tone-deaf," according to a report published Tuesday by Orlando Weekly. The paper reports that the phrase first appeared on an unofficial flag raised in 1845, the year Florida was admitted to the United States as a slave state.
"For enslaved people, demands for government noninterference meant leaving intact a system that denied their humanity and exploited their labor," Young said, as quoted by Orlando Weekly. He asked the department to reconsider the phrase and to consult historians and representatives of the state's communities, according to the report.
The department's page on the new card does not discuss the phrase beyond naming its source, and Orlando Weekly's report did not include a response from the department.
