Massachusetts State Flag (we need a better state flag)

As far as whats just the best overall as a stand alone flag design of the 3 I think the mayflower flag is obvious imo. If we cant have that though then why is it even one of the options?

Between the other 2 I think the red is better, but its not great. The 3rd one is absolutely horrible though. Its fine as a drawing, but just a really bad flag design.

Why is the mass bay colony flag not an option? Its the new england flag without the pine tree. It at least has history attached to it, plus the design and color already associated with the region.

So the 3 options they came to are a flag that cant be used, the red one, and whatever the hell that third one is. They really fucked this huh? I had a sliver of hope this wouldnt be a shit show… but damn. Just keep the flag we have at this point… None of these are good enough to even waste the time on. Come back to it later when we can be serious.
 
stick n move said:
As far as whats just the best overall as a stand alone flag design of the 3 I think the mayflower flag is obvious imo. If we cant have that though then why is it even one of the options?

Between the other 2 I think the red is better, but its not great. The 3rd one is absolutely horrible though. Its fine as a drawing, but just a really bad flag design.

Why is the mass bay colony flag not an option? Its the new england flag without the pine tree. It at least has history attached to it, plus the design and color already associated with the region.

So the 3 options they came to are a flag that cant be used, the red one, and whatever the hell that third one is. They really fucked this huh? I had a sliver of hope this wouldnt be a shit show… but damn. Just keep the flag we have at this point… None of these are good enough to even waste the time on. Come back to it later when we can be serious.
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They can't keep the one we have for the same reason they can't use the Mass Bay Colony flag. The whole point is to not use genocidal imagery.

What seems to be happening here is that the whole panel voted on a huge number of submissions and these were the top three, but individual members of the panel weren't happy and voiced that to the media after the meeting. Bear in mind that this panel isn't meeting very many times at all - they've had only a couple of hours to work through thousands of ideas.

Regardless, this is always how these processes seem to go. They announce the effort and a bunch of people say "keep the one we have." They release finalists and a few more people say "all of these suck - keep the one we have." Then they release the final one and a bunch more people say "why are we wasting our time with this? I don't like this. Keep the one we have." And a bunch of really bad flags survive in the end.
 
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I like the "Peace with Liberty" seal, and the third flag, with the nod to the ocean's role in our history and economy.
 
I dont think the mayflower flag should be dismissed outright so fast. I get it as far as reference to the ship and the colonial history, but the mayflower as in the flower itself is flower historically found throughout new england and is the state flower. I dont think it has to represent the ship. Its not an image of the ship or a pilgrim on the flag, its the state flower. Maybe I’m just naïve..
 
stick n move said:
I dont think the mayflower flag should be dismissed outright so fast. I get it as far as reference to the ship and the colonial history, but the mayflower as in the flower itself is flower historically found throughout new england and is the state flower. I dont think it has to represent the ship. Its not an image of the ship or a pilgrim on the flag, its the state flower. Maybe I’m just naïve..
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I hear you, and that is more or less what the designer said... https://www.mass.gov/info-details/seal-flag-and-motto-round-three-selections#seal-submissions

But the indigenous members of the Committee told the Globe they didn't want it. I feel like their opinion is pretty decisive.

FWIW, here's the discussion on r/vexillology:
https://www.reddit.com/r/vexillology/comments/1n2ol7s/the_three_finalists_for_the_massachusetts_flag

The two most common opinions seem to be "these all suck, where's the tree, use a Revolution-era battle flag" and "is it okay if I like the red one?"
 
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