Stoneage Ramblings

By John R. Stone

Coming up with a new Minnesota state flag has proven to be a more interesting issue than one might have thought.

People are pretty excited about changes in the flag, not always in a positive way.

Our “old” flag was complicated and probably didn’t meet the needs of modern graphic design. It was too busy, had too much stuff to see from a distance and some felt parts didn’t represent Native American residents appropriately.

The Star Tribune had a recent article about the controversy and the contest for flag entries itself that drew over 2,000 entries. The 2,000 were narrowed down to six finalists by a state committee.

The finalists seemed to meet all the criteria for modern graphics at least, they were simple in design, contained a limited number of colors, and could been seen clearly from a distance.

Some critics decried the lack of the state bird, the loon, on the flag. Most of the entrees contained different versions of a star for the “north star” part of the flag, or is it a snowflake? One contained a wavy line that could be a ripple on a lake or the Mississippi River. One contained something that could be interpreted as an “M,” presumably for Minnesota.

At least one of the original 2000 entries had a mosquito but not the final six. Now some might think of a mosquito as a negative but while we are talking about symbolism here the mosquito might represent freedom more than anything else I’ve seen on a flag entry.

A mosquito symbolizes complete freedom. Mosquitoes roam everywhere unhindered by fences, roadways, rivers or other bodies of water. They are found border to border. They represent freedom to Minnesota citizens, you don’t need a state or federal license to hunt them, for example. And the whole state is a hunting zone. We don’t spend state money to raise them or boost their populations so no DNR complications. You don’t need a state license to raise them if that is your thing. You can spray them at home without fear of violating some law and the list goes on. And to my knowledge neither the FDA or CDC says you can’t eat them. What other things represent freedom better?

Another concern is the M or something that tells us that this is the Minnesota state flag. Now the M on one of the flag finalists is subtle. What happens if the flag is upside down? Does the M become a W and confuse people with Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming or Washington? Or does an M do a good enough job of distinguishing Minnesota from Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts or Michigan?

Maybe the simple design doesn’t pin anybody down, we can all see what we want to see. And then we can tell others what they see isn’t really there because it is not clearly defined.

This thing is going to drag on for a little while yet. And there is also the state seal issue. That is set for a redo as well. I think it was the seal, which is on the current flag, that created the issue with native American portrayal.

The seal will need some more things, like it will have to say Official Minnesota State Seal on it so people know which state is being very official by putting its seal on a document to distinguish it from an unofficial state document. A seal entry revealed last week to some cheer contained a loon and the word The Great Seal of the State of Minnesota apparently to distinguish it from lesser than great seals.

All this flag and seal work will no doubt raise its head in the coming session of the Minnesota Legislature. The state budget for the biennium has already been passed so legislators will have plenty of time to deal with the flag and seal issues.

It will be interesting to see which political party tries to stake out the high moral ground and/or political edge on these earth shaking issues.