I don’t remember where I got the 3-by-5 Maine state flag I kept hung on the wall of my college dorm room for all four years I was at Smith College.
My friends and I had a running joke that the farmer and the sailor depicted on the flag were gay married. This was back between 2010 and 2014 when the gay marriage debates were still going strong (it was only legalized in Maine during my junior year). Now that flag is on top of my curio cabinet, along with a backup Maine state flag. I also have no idea where that came from. Maybe if you’re a Mainer long enough, flags just start materializing in your closet.
On the other hand, quite literally, my second tattoo was the pine tree and blue north star on the inside of my right wrist. Specifically, I took the design from the logo of Bre Kidman’s Senate campaign. They were the first openly nonbinary person to run for Senate, an extremely cool person in general and a friend of mine. This particular iteration of the 1901 flag features a somewhat fluffier pine tree than most; it looks a bit like a Christmas cookie. My skin tone does technically qualify as a “buff background,” so it does meet flag standards.
All this is to say that I have an emotional connection with both versions of the Maine state flag. So Question 5 on November’s ballot, “Do you favor making the former state flag, replaced as the official flag of the State in 1909 and commonly known as the Pine Tree Flag, the official flag of the State?” is not an easy one. Mainers are not real fond of change, and that goes double for me, even though this is technically more of a reversal than a change.
What is a flag for? Historically, it’s been for signaling, in particular at sea and on battlefields, and it is for representation. I guess it’s a good thing that we don’t need to use the Maine flag to signal things at sea very often these days; at a distance, it’s indistinguishable from the flags of Idaho, Kansas and Vermont, among a few dozen others that have the state seal on a navy background. The proposed new flag does a much better job of standing out at a distance than the current flag.
The downside of changing the flag is largely the cost of replacement of thousands of flags at official buildings and private businesses across the state. For the state buildings, the costs can be absorbed within current budget, according to the fiscal note on L.D. 86 (the flag bill), especially if the replacement happens gradually as flags get worn and torn. The upside of changing the flag? It’s largely aesthetic. But aesthetics and imagery matter. Even I know that, and I’m an entirely word-based creative. My God, we’re the most beautiful state in the union (not that I’m biased). Shouldn’t we have a beautiful flag? Do you feel anything tugging in your chest when you look at the current flag? Because I don’t. All I think is: “That must be the DMV over there.”
This all feels very low-stakes. No one is raising money to either support or oppose the referendum. When was the last time you saw a referendum question without a ton of PAC money behind it? Nobody’s rights get taken away if it passes or fails; nobody’s going to make or lose a ton of money. We’re living at a time when every vote and election can feel like life or death, and for many people, it is. It’s kind of nice to just be voting on a flag.
Adam Lemire, the architect (or perhaps I should say artist-tect) who created the winning design, submitted it to the contest while in the hospital waiting for his partner to give birth. (She was asleep waiting for induction when he sent it in; don’t worry, he didn’t miss it.) I loved this for two reasons. One, as a fellow procrastinator, I feel truly represented by this process. You’d be surprised at the unlikely places I’ve written columns in the past. And two, more importantly, it draws a beautiful juxtaposition between a new flag and a new life. A new symbol for Maine coming into the world at the same time as a new citizen of Maine. If it were written in a novel, I might even consider the symbolism to be a little heavy-handed. But life is like that sometimes.
I’ll be voting yes on Question 5. If the vote doesn’t swing our way, I’ll still have two true blue Maine flags at home. Best to be prepared for anything.
Victoria Hugo-Vidal is a Maine millennial. She can be contacted at:
[email protected]
Twitter: @mainemillennial
