I’m with MEBuckner, though as a native of South Carolina, I’m … let’s see, “prejudiced” isn’t the word I really want to use here … biased, that’s it … I’m biased.
IMHO, any flag with writing on it is a bad flag, because it makes the flag look stupid unless you’re on one particular side of it. I think flags should be designed to look good flying in a stiff wind, not hanging on a wall.
My top 3: South Carolina (less is more – the only way I’d like it better is if it were just the Ft. Moultrie flag w/o the palmetto tree), Alaska (beautifully elegant and with a story to boot), New Mexico (heritage without hate – learn something, Klansmen).
My bottom 3: Hawaii (do not adjust your set), Georgia (designed by committee and it shows!), and Kentucky (what’s that for, king size pillows?)
I dont know ONE person who likes it whether they were for or against the original.
Not only is it ugly as hell, but having the United States
flag placed in an inferior position to another flag, I thought was against the Official U.S. flag code.
I would bet the flag WILL be back, just as soon as
the people of Georgia are given the chance to remove
Gov. “Pear-ass” Barnes.
It was one of the most sneaky, underhanded, putsomemoneyinmypocket, political moves in the state.
HELL NO WE AINT FORGETTIN’
Ohio. Definitely Ohio, based on grim school experience.
There was the capital memorization thing…(“Pierre! Montpellier! Piedmont!”) followed by the equally dreary state flag test.
But Ohio’s? It’s the only banner type in a sea of rectangles.
Okay, okay, if you’re gonna pick nits about aesthetics and symbolism…
I think Maryland’s flag is definitely the coolest. I seem to recall a magazine article a while back claiming that among states the Maryland flag was the only “true” flag in terms of using heraldry design principles.
Y’know, I’m disinclined to listen to the opinions of idiots who think the Marshall Islands are part of the U.S. They’ve been independent for ten fuckin’ years, people!
The worst is the generic seal on dark blue that too many states have. Oklahoma’s almost falls into this category, except it’s sky blue, instantly lofting it into the unique category along with winners like New Mexico, Texas, California, Hawaii, Maryland, Quebec, and the champion, Ohio.
Since it says “ILLINOIS” on it in huge letters, it couldn’t take you more than three guesses.
Incidentally, I think the arms on Maryland’s flag were Lord Baltimore’s, and DC’s flag is George Washington’s arms.
Oh, and I do love the New Mexico flag. I was considering getting a tattoo of a zia, but aside from looking really cool, it doesn’t really mean anything special to me.
I agree with waterj2, the fact that the California flag says “California Republic” is a nice echo back to the brief time of the “Bear Republic”. I hear that the star in the flag is kind of a “salute” to Texas.
The simplest flag ever flown over California was probably the flag Lt. Juan B. Alvarado flew over Monterey, which was a white flag with a single centered red star in the center.
Many years ago there was an article in The Smithsonian magazine on what was wrong with most of the state flags, pretty much expressing the same opinions NAVA did. They also had some suggestions for redesign of some of the “state seal on a bedsheet” flags.
Note that the CA flag was #13 in spite of blatantly violating the rule that a flag shouldn’t have text on it. I looked up #11 and #12 (Hawaii and Nova Scotia) and determined that CA was the highest ranked flag that had words on it. If they would remove the “California Republic” and adjust the bear and star a bit so as not to leave a gap in the design where the text was, the flag would have to be in the top 10. I kind of agree with NAVA on avoiding text on flags - it’s tacky.
One of the most comprehensive resources of flag information around is the “flags of the World” site. NAVA’s link to it is broken. Try this:
The truly hideous design for the Georgia state flag reminds me of a definition I once heard relating to the camel, “The camel is the outcome of a horse designed by committee.”
Georgia isn’t the only state with a crappy design, but you can bet that the ones near the bottom of the list have been tinkered with in recent history by the p.c. committees, blue-ribbon commissions, and touchy-feelie weenies that just can’t keep their fingers off of anything they deem “inappropriate”.
I’m from Georgia, I’m white, and abhor the “new” change to a design which was fine just the way it was. P.C. be damned.
Actually, the consensus seems to be that the South Carolina flag is one of the best, and the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag seems to have helped it aesthetically. The problem with Georgia’s flag is that it’s ugly, not that it’s PC. The other low ranked flags are generally ones that are blue with the state seal in the middle.
In fact, the NAVA site suggests flags should never be designed by committee - instead, individuals should design flags, and a committee can choose among alternative designs.
And I think the remarks are appropriate for Georgia - it does look like a committee-designed mess. But most of the losers haven’t been tinkered with - they are simply the “seal on bedsheet” bit that resulted from a common pattern followed without much thought.
As a bystander, I’ll note from the history at fotw that Georgia only added the stars and bars to the flag in 1956 anyway, and they’ve had a succession of flags that pretty much sucked:
For the new one, they seem to have gone out of their way to be ugly - WHY must it say “Georgia’s History” in the banner containing all the little flags? It’s Georgia’s flag - I’m not going to think the banner contains a group of flags depicting the important symbols in the history of Outer Mongolia.
BTW, AtomicDog’s likening of the stars-and-bars to a swastika got me thinking:
If we are judging flags solely on graphical merit, not on what they represent, surely one of the most visually stunning designs of recent history WAS the flag of the Third Reich - it’s really an excellent design by all of the guidelines NAVA suggests. Simple enough for a child to execute from memory, three colors, etc. I wonder how much of the appeal of neo-nazism to certain segments to the population is attributable to that arresting piece of symbolism. Would we have fewer skinheads today if the Nazi’s had adopted some sort of fussy bric-a-brac emblem instead?
