Posted on 05/21/2023 11:04:28 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Sen. Dan McCay couldn’t stop thinking about the process it took for Utah to adopt a new state flag as he, Gov. Spencer Cox and a group of other elected leaders, government employees, residents and children carried the new flag to a pole on the roof of the Utah Capitol on Wednesday morning.
To him, the group of people holding the flag represented a piece of the thousands of Utahns who either submitted designs or offered feedback that led to the final design that they were holding. Moments later, they clipped the large flag to a line underneath the state’s current flag and hoisted both up to the top of the pole.
“I just love that there were so many Utahns involved in the process, and how the flag was put up today is symbolic of that kind of participation,” said McCay, the Republican from Rivterton who authored the bill that set aside the new flag.
The brief ceremony marked the first time the new state flag has flown atop the Utah Capitol since the Utah Legislature passed SB31 in March. The bill designated the most radically different state flag design in over a century.
The historic moment was a bit anticlimactic, though. The two flags failed to unfurl during the calm, warm, sunny morning.
“You’d think with all these politicians there would be enough hot air to get that thing moving,” McCay joked, as the group stared up at the flag.
While the bill, which also designates the current design as the state’s historical flag, technically doesn’t take effect until March 9, 2024, many residents, businesses and state entities have already started to voluntarily begin flying the new flag. Major venues like Smith’s Ballpark in Salt Lake City and America First Field in Sandy are among its earliest adopters.
In fact, Colonial Flag has already sold about 2,000 flags since the flag design was approved, according to DeVaughn Simper, a vexillologist at the company.
Simper, who was involved in the flag design process as an expert in manufacturing flags, explained that he was not completely surprised by the early support, as it aligned with previous examples of when Utahns become “passionate” about a topic or cause. It happened last year with Ukrainian flags after Russia invaded the country, and it happens regularly with American flags.
Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, speaks during the raising of the new Utah state flag at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday. (Photo: Ryan Sun/Deseret News)
Of course, the current state flag isn’t going anywhere. Cox referenced the “controversy” that arose over the new flag process shortly before he helped raise the new flag Wednesday morning, including a referendum that would have sent SB31 to a public ballot before it could take effect. The measure gained almost 50,000 total signatures but fell far shy of the 134,298 signatures required to be successful.
A Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll of 801 Utahns published in early April found that about 48% supported the new design, while 38% opposed it. But now that the bill is moving toward its effective date, the governor said that he hopes Utahns will fly either flag in the future since the new law essentially offers Utahns to pick whichever flag they want to fly.
“I’m grateful for the compromise that was reached,” he said. “I think the Legislature did the right thing in keeping the historic flag, as well. … I’m hoping that this is something that can bring us together.”
Simper said that since the current flag has been around much longer, it’s difficult to compare sales with the new flag. It’s likely sales for either flag will level off moving forward, as other political and cultural topics eventually take center stage.
He also believes the two flags will be equally popular moving forward, given the arguments he’s seen on either side of the debate.
“We’re anticipating about a 50-50 split based on all the conversation that’s happening online and the different opinions going on,” Simper said. “We’ll be continuing to make both flags for the foreseeable future.”
Sen. Dan McCay, R-Riverton, holds the flag during the raising of the new Utah state flag at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Wednesday. (Photo: Ryan Sun/Deseret News)
That’s an estimate that McCay is thrilled to hear. While he championed the new flag, he told KSL.com that he wants Utahns to take pride in either flag and decide to fly one outside their home or business in the future.
He’s confident that those who oppose the new flag will begin to come around to the design, especially as they see it more often outside of homes, businesses and government buildings moving forward.
“Watching the (new flag) be flown, seeing people run with it, it’s been awesome,” he said. “I guess I’m humbled by the whole thing. Eventually, I’ll fade away and no one will really remember me but the flag itself will be here for a long time.”
NOT impressed with ‘new’ flag.
Utah’s new flag looks like Missouri’s flag is taking drugs, or having a seizure, or living through an earthquake.
New flag looks like it’d make a good armband. If you get my drift.
‘Order 322‘ is another name for Skull and Bones - the elite secret society at Yale University. This year, 2023, is the Year of Skull and Bones, celebrating the 322nd anniversary of the founding of Yale in 1701.
The flag was approved by the Utah house and senate on March 2 2023.
3-2-2023
This date points to 322 forwards and backwards, sharing the middle 2.
Utah has passed legislation this session that would be lauded by conservatives. But the overarching theme - and all you really need to know - is represented by the new flag.
They can pass all the bills they want against wokeism, but they will always let you know who’s still in charge.
This is how it’s done - how people with good hearts and good intentions get pulled along, eventually landing in a place with no recollection of how they got there. This is sleight-of-hand on steroids.
All hidden - in plain sight.
It’s a good thing that the bees are there. Otherwise it would look like a....I’ll give you one guess! LOL
Yes, that flag is what was finally adopted. There was a proposed flag that was black with some white designs on it. I suspect it was a “black power” proposal. The Post Office was flying the US flag, the current Georgia flag, and the Georgia Pirate Flag only last week. This is weird: I can’t find a picture of that thing.
Not nearly as ugly as Mississippi’s post 2020 woke flag, America’s ugliest by far.
Just wait until we add a new State and have to redesign the flag.
Utah is the “Beehive State.”
The beehive is symbolic of industriousness and hard work. It’s also a very old Masonic symbol which predates both Utah statehood (1896) and the Utah Territory (1850).
The beehive is a very old Masonic symbol that is still used in many countries, but in England and Wales it was dropped after the Union of 1813. It can still be seen however in some older pre-Union lodges, for example it is displayed as a symbol on the 3rd Degree Tracing Board of the Royal Cumberland Lodge No.41 in Bath, but to all purposes it has been lost as a symbol under the United Grand Lodge of England.
The ritual of the Royal Cumberland Lodge dates back to the eighteenth century...
The earliest known Masonic reference to the beehive is found in an MS entitled A Letter from the Grand Mistress of the Female Free-Masons to Mr Harding the Printer, found in the Halliday Collection, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. This document is believed to have been created between 1727 and 1730, and while originally attributed to Jonathan Swift, the true author remains unknown.
“A bee has in all Ages and Nations been the Grand Hierogliphick of Masonry, because it excells all other living Creatures in the Contrivance and Commodiousness of its Habitation or combe; … nay Masonry or Building seems to be of the very Essence or Nature of the Bee, for her Building not the ordinary Way of all other living Creatures, is the Generative Cause which produces the Young ones….”
“For this Reason the Kings of France both Pagans and Christians, always Eminent Free-Masons, carried three Bees for their Arms…”
“What Modern Masons call a Lodge was for the above Reasons by Antiquity call’d a HIVE of Free-Masons, and for the same Reasons when a Dissention happens in a Lodge the going off and forming another Lodge is to this Day call’d SWARMING.”
Masonic symbolism saturates all aspects of the American Republic.
Click on the link and scroll down half a page.
The "historical flag" is flying in the breeze.
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