The Michigan flag has a moose, elk, eagle, and a lot of Latin. One state lawmaker thinks the 111-year-old design is outdated and needs an overhaul.
The change would not be the first push to change it, but it sure seemed to have a lot more steam behind it.
The original designers slapped the state seal on some blue fabric and said if you seek a pleasant peninsula and Tuebor, which means I will defend.
Many now believe they’re not interested in defending the design. Ask anyone across Michigan what they know about their flag, and you’ll get many answers.
“I could have sworn it has a bird on it, blue, and an eagle,” said a man and a woman.
Some responded after they’d had a close look at the design.
“Antelopes, gazelles, moose,” the man and woman. “They could do better.”
Those views are exactly how East Grand Rapids State Representative Phil Skaggs felt.
“An S.O.B flag,” said Skaggs. “A seal on a bedsheet.”
Skaggs suggested putting together a legislative panel that would bring in design experts and goes to work on modernizing our old Tuebor streamer.
“We are a distinctive place and should have a distinctive flag,” Skaggs said.
A vexillologist is someone who studies flags and flag design. Ted Kaye with NAVA Security is one who published a book called Good Flag Bad Flag.
“If the very purpose of the flag is to show who it represents, and you can’t tell who it represents, then it’s a design failure,” said Kaye.
So as we look to remake our century-old standard, Kaye told Local 4 we should go for meaning symbolism.
“Simplicity, meaningful symbolism, two to three colors, no lettering or seals, and distinctiveness,” Kaye said.
“I think given our water heritage and forest here as well as great universities, the colors blue and green,” Skaggs said.
