I think a lot of us thought it was kind of a dumb idea to begin with, but state legislators have killed the bill that would've replaced the state flag with an older design from 100+ years ago. I imagine most people feel the same way, which is why would we ever change it? I enjoy our Dirigo flag, personally.

But... The idea of a redesign is not over. Lawmakers did vote to redesign the flag for Maine's Bicentennial coming up next year, in 2020. Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap will take the skills of his former life as a textile designer and stitcher, and come up with a new flag to celebrate Main'es 200th birthday. The voting has only passed the committee stage at this point, and will head to full legislature later on, according to the Portland Press Herald.

While some  folks in state government seemed open to the idea of changing the flag, their constituents let them know otherwise. Will Tuell, R- East Machias was quite receptive to the idea, but he got the message loud and clear.

 

Boy, did I get an earful…Don’t you have better things to do? And sometimes a lot more colorful language than that!

So while state legislators are on board with breathing a bit of air into this subject, they are listening to their voters, who are telling them that there are bigger fish to fry. And I, for one, think that's encouraging. We're telling our state governmetn that they have better things to do, and they're listening!

So as we get closer to 2020, we may start seeing some new designs for our Bicentennial flag, but for now, it'll just be the good old Dirigo flag we've all come to know and love in our lifetime. Sometimes, change is just unimportant.

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