Yeah, I thought that link was an odd choice. Try this:
I love our flag too, but maybe replacing the Zia sun with drug paraphernalia would be more honest.
Agreed on every count. This flag isn’t great, but it’s definitely an improvement over Yet Another Seal on a Blue Background.
I think the biggest problem with the new flag is that it’s too representational. I’m not one of those purists who insists that a flag should have no representational art at all (Canada’s maple leaf is pretty good, for instance), but it shouldn’t be detailed art. I think that if the beehive lacked the stripes, and it was just one mountain peak instead of a jagged ridge, it’d look better.
You need to click the Oregon link to discover that the front and back of the flag have different images. Go Beaver State!
They should replace the name of the state. It would become the state with the shortest name and alphabetically last.
It is better than the current flag but even better would be: White upper half (snowpeaked mountains), medium blue bottom half (Great Salt Lake) with an idealized beehive in the center.
Members of the Zia tribe have misgivings about honkies using their symbol. They really don’t want a bunch of outsiders using their name.
Ah, but, you’re thinking like an actual vexillologist, as opposed to the proponents who, as the OP mentions, are thinking like brand marketeers.
Actually, it tells me that this redesign was organic to Utah, in that it did not follow what happened with Georgia and Mississippi where they shoehorned an “In God We Trust” into the flags as an amendment that is usually pushed by the conservative legislation-tank ALEC to any law regarding state symbols.
And since the beehive has been in the State Seal since inception, I’ll accept it as an allusion to the settlement history: the basic question would wind up on whether it’s a symbol of the CJCLDS itself, or a symbol of the community that the sect founded.
Personally, I like our (California) state flag. Too bad we killed all the grizzlies.
It is unambiguously a religious symbol. From Mormon sources:
The beehive came to be a symbol for both the State of Utah and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Beehive Symbol - Mormonism, The Mormon Church, Beliefs, & Religion - MormonWiki
The beehive is one of the most common and enduring symbols within Mormonism, used ubiquitously.
Well, you have four left, guarding the Klamath River bridge.
California has a really good flag, I think any state flag that has origins from the 1800’s or earlier automatically is a good state flag. Same with Texas.
I like- Alaska, New Mexico, California, Arizona, Maryland, & South Carolina.
I hate- Alabama (racist), & North Carolina (racist).
I am not a fan- of the many states that just have their state seal.
Yeah, altho Texas kinda looks like it is coping the CSA, it is more the other way.
I count at least 4 state flags with crosses on them.
South Carolina is the strangest one if you don’t know the origin of the palm tree and crescent moon. It looks like it should be the flag of an Islamic state with desert oases.
Knowing all the trouble Procter and Gamble has had with their “Satanic” crescent moon logo, I’m half-surprised somebody from the Xian Fundamentalist wacko camp hasn’t already started a thing about the “Satanic” origins of the SC flag.
See here for background:
Here is my proposed Utah flag
needs ripples in the blue, and maybe a seagull (state bird) perched on the hive
I like it.
I did kind of like the “red rock” part, though. I think the rock formations and canyons are as much an iconic part of Utah (if not more so) than the Salt Lake and the mountains.
How about 3 stripes, with the bottom one the actual orange-red color of Navajo sandstone to make it more distinctive than the ubiquitous red-white-blue.