Design Ideas for a New State Flag

Proposed designs for Utah's new flag. [I think there may be one corporate logo accidentally thrown in there - not sure how that happened. And why are there 19 and not a nice round number, like 20?]

I know some of my constituents do NOT want a new flag AT ALL, and I get that. In fact, although I admire several state flags (AZ, NM, and WY, among others) I was leaning toward keeping our traditional flag with all of its symbols until Sen. Dan McCay shared his perspective on designing a new flag during a caucus discussion a few years ago.

He pointed out that the way to identify a fellow Utahn (at Disneyland, a national park, the Paris Metro, or any other destination) is by which university logo they're wearing on their shirt: UofU, USU, BYU, or another Utah school. That's because our current state flag is not used on t-shirts or hats - which isn't a big deal, until you consider that our school affiliations tend to divide us, rather than unify us. Before and after certain rivalry games, they divide us even more.

In theory, Utahns already have a state flag to unify under - we just don't use our flag for that purpose.

Why? In my opinion, there are three main reasons: 1) the flag's design is too cumbersome, complicated, and crowded; 2) the current flag looks very much like the Presidential seal; and 3) there are 25 other state flags with a navy blue background that look like the Utah flag, 14 of which also display state seals.

Utah is a unique place. Our flag should represent our uniqueness.

The Utah flag should be immediately recognizable, even from a distance.

Our flag should identify Utah, and Utahns should be able to identify with our flag.

And most of all, the flag should unify all of the people in our state, regardless of where they came from, how long they've been here, or where they went to school, if they went to school.

New flag merchandise will very likely be a net revenue generator for years to come, mitigating the objection many people have to the cost.

I try to remember that, although I am conservative, traditional is not ALWAYS best. Traditional does not equal sacred. Our current flag was designed, after all, not by Utahns, but by a national organization (the Daughters of the American Revolution, or DAR) headquartered in Washington, D.C. The traditional Utah flag has undergone several unauthorized modifications since that time.

I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect we will have a huge battle on this flag issue during general session, the likes of which my email inbox has never seen. This could be epic! I'm hopeful that one consensus flag will emerge early on in the process. Frankly, I don't see a personal favorite in this grouping - at least not yet.

Let me know what you think!