# OK vexillologists, out there! Name your favorite flags and your most disliked flags **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 6, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vexillologists-out-there-name-your-favorite-flags-and-your-most-disliked-flags/538562 "2010-05-06T21:51:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2015, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vexillologists-out-there-name-your-favorite-flags-and-your-most-disliked-flags/538562/141 "2015-10-28T23:43:58Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Thanks for fighting my ignorance, **Peremensoe**. I didn’t realize the Maryland flag only dated to 1904, and that its quartered design, while based on George Calvert (Lord Baltimore)'s coat of arms, was a conciliatory measure following the Civil War. FYI, here’s [another article](http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/26981/marylands-flag-may-be-more-symbolic-than-you-realize/)on the Maryland flag. > > I agree that most people do not associate the flags of Georgia, Florida, and Alabama with the Confederacy, but that’s what makes them so insidious as crypto-symbols of the racist past of the Confederacy. (The red saltire of Florida and Alabama were battle flags of Confederate regiments.) Racists who know their background can smugly gloat that they’ve put one over on all those who don’t know that history. > > Of course, the current [flag of Mississippi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mississippi) incorporates the Confederate Battle Flag into a modified Stars and Bars design, so it’s a little more obvious in its harking back to the Confederacy. According to the Wiki page, there have been some moves to change it, but so far not successfully. > > IMO, all of them should be purged of any trace of Confederate symbolism. > > (Of course, someone might very well call for my beloved Maryland flag to be redesigned on the same grounds. Ouch! How can I rationalize making other people change without having to make a similar sacrifice myself? I’ll have to work on this!) > > But on a serious note, I’d like to take this opportunity to apologize to **Slow Moving Vehicle** and other others in this thread for possibly crossing a line in post #129 by bringing politics into what was primarily a discussion of the graphic appeal (or not) of various flags, and for making what could have been taken as a personal comment about **SMV.** > > Although as this post shows, I have serious concerns about the symbolism of various southern flags, my original intent was primarily light hearted, and I’m gratified that it seems to have been taken that way by everyone else. But after I went to bed last night, I began to think that maybe I should have kept the politics out of this thread. > > So my thanks to everyone for taking things in the way I intended and for the thoughtful conversation on the political aspects of flags. And my apologies to anyone who may have been offended or felt my post was inappropriate. Hey, no worries as far as _I’m_ concerned. I took your posts as a opportunity for some fun geographically-based teasing. Thus the “So there”, and calling you a redcoat. I was having fun, and assumed you were, too. You owe me no apologies, my friend. But you still have an ugly-ass flag! 😛 And you did raise an interesting point that might - true - be something of a hijack: when are the historical connotations of a design sufficiently obscure to say that it no longer has them? I’m a fairly historically-minded person, and a liberal Southerner as well, but I had never before considered that Florida’s and Alabama’s saltires reference the Confederate Battle Flag. (And per Wikipedia, they actually go back to flags of Spain, the original colonizer of what is now Florida and Alabama.) Nor, until it was pointed out in a thread a few months ago, did I see the Confederate symbolism in Arkansas’ or Tennessee’s flags. I suspect it’s equally invisible to most Americans, even the frothing racists. That’s how most of Georgia’s black legislators felt when we adopted our current flag in 2004: [QUOTE=The New Georgia Encyclopedia] Ironically, the new flag recognizes Georgia’s Confederate heritage by placing Georgia’s coat of arms and “In God We Trust” on the first national flag of the Confederacy. This legacy did not go unnoticed by African American legislators and others—but most expressed a willingness to allow this tribute because **they did not see it as a symbol widely associated with racist groups**. [/QUOTE] \*Bolding mine. For what it’s worth, when it went to a referendum, Georgians black and white overwhelmingly supported the 2004 flag: > [@](#): > > In a statewide referendum held on March 2, 2004, Georgia voters had the opportunity to express their preference for either the new design or the 2001 design. Support for the new design was overwhelming, with more than 73 percent of voters selecting it over the flag adopted during Governor Barnes’s administration. _[That is, the much-criticized [“placemat flag”.](http://www.50states.com/flag/image/ga_flag_2001.gif)]_ ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vexillologists-out-there-name-your-favorite-flags-and-your-most-disliked-flags/538562/142 "2015-10-29T00:25:58Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > Yeah, but on the other hand, what other state flag - or country flag, come to that - is buff-colored? None. I’m all for distinctive, but pee-pee colored is worse than boring. It doesn’t look too bad in the Wikipedia image. In real life, it’s usually quite a bit yellower. If it were beige/ivory/taupe, it wouldn’t be bad. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vexillologists-out-there-name-your-favorite-flags-and-your-most-disliked-flags/538562/143 "2015-10-29T00:36:12Z")
> [@Green\_Bean](#): > > None. I’m all for distinctive, but pee-pee colored is worse than boring. > > It doesn’t look too bad in the Wikipedia image. In real life, it’s usually quite a bit yellower. If it were beige/ivory/taupe, it wouldn’t be bad. On the other hand, it affords some great urine-based Joisey humor. Hey, New Jersey foisted that ass Chris Christie on the rest of us; y’all got to _pay_! ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vexillologists-out-there-name-your-favorite-flags-and-your-most-disliked-flags/538562/144 "2015-10-29T00:56:08Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > I’m a fairly historically-minded person, and a liberal Southerner as well, but I had never before considered that Florida’s and Alabama’s saltires reference the Confederate Battle Flag. (And per Wikipedia, they actually go back to flags of Spain, the original colonizer of what is now Florida and Alabama.) They could always try and make it look even more like the[alleged reference source](http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/es_brgdy.html) (especially the version you see when you scroll 3/4 of the way down that page); however the National Park Service already uses that one as [their house flag](http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/66507660.jpg)for the old Spanish fortresses at San Juan, St. Augustine, and other locations. Maybe they should do like New Mexico and use red-on-yellow or yellow-on-red to evoke Spain. Or throw in some castles and lions. Alabama may want to do something in crimson and orange ;)😛 ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vexillologists-out-there-name-your-favorite-flags-and-your-most-disliked-flags/538562/145 "2015-10-29T06:58:52Z")
As a native Californian I am relatively satisfied with our state flag. It’s not great, but it beats the hell out of at least forty other state flags. I would like to see the red stripe at the bottom made blue as a reference to the Pacific Ocean, though. And dump the “CALIFORNIA REPUBLIC” which is not needed and which refers to a quaint effort at creating a political entity at a time when any bunch of liquored-up ignorami could claim their piece of real estate as a republic. It only lasted for a week and a half as I recall, and I don’t think anyone outside of California noticed it. Or cared. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vexillologists-out-there-name-your-favorite-flags-and-your-most-disliked-flags/538562/146 "2015-10-29T08:04:46Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > What about the Scandinavian off-centre crosses, particularly Finland’s and Denmark’s - extreme left and right of this picture: > > [http://www.welcome-to-my-copenhagen.com/images/denmark\_flag\_nordic\_flags.jpg](http://www.welcome-to-my-copenhagen.com/images/denmark_flag_nordic_flags.jpg) They’re not off-centre but on their side. What happens is that those flags were born as pennants: when flying as pennants, they’re Latin Crosses. Turn them on the side and the Cross goes to bed. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vexillologists-out-there-name-your-favorite-flags-and-your-most-disliked-flags/538562/147 "2015-10-29T11:55:32Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Maybe they should do like New Mexico and use red-on-yellow or yellow-on-red to evoke Spain. Or throw in some castles and lions. Alabama may want to do something in crimson and orange ;)😛 What, and provoke _another_ Civil War? ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vexillologists-out-there-name-your-favorite-flags-and-your-most-disliked-flags/538562/148 "2015-10-29T13:51:28Z")
I like the Nepal flag. What did the (former) Kingdom of Albania flag look like? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vexillologists-out-there-name-your-favorite-flags-and-your-most-disliked-flags/538562/149 "2015-10-29T14:12:09Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > What did the (former) Kingdom of Albania flag look like? [Post-Ottoman Albanian flags](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Albania#Chronological), including the present one, are all versions of the black double-headed eagle on a red field, which comes from [the Kastrioti arms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kastrioti_family). ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2015, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vexillologists-out-there-name-your-favorite-flags-and-your-most-disliked-flags/538562/150 "2015-10-29T16:13:46Z")
I wish Vermont would either drop its commonplace shield-on-a-blue-field flag for the much more distinctive flag of the Green Mountain Boys, or at least change the field of the current flag to green. Washington has the only green state flag at the moment. > **[Flag of Vermont](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_vermont)** > > The flag of the state of Vermont displays the coat of arms and motto of the U.S. state of Vermont ("Freedom and Unity") on a rectangular blue background. The Vermont General Assembly adopted this flag on June 1, 1923. > Multiple versions of the flag have been used throughout history. Originally, the flag was the flag of the Green Mountain Boys. It was then changed to look similar to the flag of the United States, with red and white stripes and a blue canton. It was changed again to be dissimilar t... > **[Flag of Washington](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Washington)** > > The flag of Washington consists of the state seal, displaying an image of its namesake George Washington, on a field of dark green with gold fringe being optional. It is the only U.S. state flag with a field of green as well as the only state flag with the image of an American president. The secretary of state regulates flag protocol related to the state flag, as well approving replica flags for commercial sale and other standards related to the flag. > The flag was officially adopted on March 5... [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-vexillologists-out-there-name-your-favorite-flags-and-your-most-disliked-flags/538562.md?page=7)