South Carolina's design says: "Keep head attached."
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.”
Looks more like a corporate or sports logo that a state flag.
BFD
Compared to the existing flag, it looks more modern, but it drops three key elements, namely, U.S. flags, an eagle, and arrows to symbolize six tribes of native people living in Utah. All it retains from the current flag is the beehive, Utah’s well-known symbol of industry. The word industry and dates of Utah’s admission to the union, as well as the arrival of the Mormons in 1847, are also gone. A stylized mountain range was not on the original version.
A lot of specific historical context is being removed, I suppose the debate would be whether that is good, bad, or indifferent. Two words, Utah, and industry, also disappear, along with the sego plant which is supposedly on the current flag.
If you want to see more details about the original flag and other designs that were finalists, would recommend the article “flags of Utah” on wikipedia.
What was wrong with the old flag?
Does it have a silhouette of Mitt Romney?
South Carolina's design says: "Keep head attached."
(IMHO, the old one was better.)
Compare them here:
Honoring the Mormon work ethic seems to exclude the non-Mormon citizens.
I agree. The old one is more visually interesting, and the elements look as though they have some stories to tell. The new one just looks like an company logo.
Agreed - the new flag looks very “corporatetish”.
I concur. But what I also find interesting is that it has a single white star on a blue background. The "Bonnie blue" flag of rebellion is a single white star on a blue background.
For state mottos and a flag with a powerful message, you just cannot beat Virginia…
Wow. I read the comments here expect the worst. Then I went to the link and saw the new one. It was worse than I expected. Looks like something out of hunger games.
Ugly - way too busy. Putting a mountain range onto a flag rather than simple horizontal stripes, is just ugly.
We keep going down hill. Designers used to shoot for “classy” and sophisticated. I don’t know what designers today are thinking. They shoot for different and edgy and get stupid adn ugly.
I agree with that. I really like our state’s flag.
Sorry, it is BUTT ugly. All’s I see is someone bent over and they missed putting the star on the critical spot. ;-)
From the link in post 9. Looks like they gave folks a general theme and people submitted their images. Then they probably selected a few and put them to a poll. Isn't their some adage that talks about decisions by committees?
Our old church came up with some various logo designs and polled people (not me!?) and came up with dark yellow letters with the the initials of the church.
Our new church (no - we didn't leave because of the new logo) did a similar thing about 3 years later. Their “experts” came up with a very similar logo - and the same dark yellow and similar font. I imagine they used the same marketing firm as the other church, in spite of being a different denomination.
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