This image was chosen as the model design for a potential new Maine state flag. Maine voters will decide in November whether to adopt it as the official flag. Image courtesy of the Maine Secretary of State’s Office

Vote “no” on the proposed flag design. Maine does need a new flag design, but not this one. This is not our last chance.

A strikingly similar flag, the Christian nationalist “An Appeal to Heaven” revolutionary flag, was brandished in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. It represents revolution against the government. If you search for an image of “pine tree flag,” that’s what you’ll mostly find. It was used leading up to the American Revolution. We do not want a symbol associated with revolution as our state flag.

Maine’s “historical” pine tree flag, only in use for eight years before the adoption of the present state flag in 1909, had in fact drawn on the same revolutionary history symbology and image.

The pine tree does signify strength and we can draw on that as well as our history – and Wabanaki pine tree symbology – while choosing a unique design for the Pine Tree State of which we can all be proud.

The fact is, the design you are voting on was meticulously specified by the Legislature without voter input in a law that passed (L.D. 86) on Jan. 7, 2024, without the governor’s signature, after several other attempts failed. The law’s specifications dictated every symbol, color, size, proportion, background and symbol placement on the flag. The “flag design contest” this summer was only permitting input on the exact details on the shape of the floating pine tree, and what precise hex codes should be designated for each color’s tint. The results of the contest only determined those elements. Now, a “yes” vote in November will serve to finalize the Legislature’s mandated design.

You may like the new flag design, in which case you’ll vote “yes.” If you want a new flag, but maybe not the buff-background levitating tree, a “no” vote will keep our options open for a new flag design we can all get behind.

When the law was passed, at least seven companies, several from out of state, were already distributing their versions of the 1901 flag on commercial products. Secretary of State Shenna Bellows’ contest enabled her to show no favoritism to any one company’s tree shape.

Do you want profit-making entities to dictate a “done deal” to Mainers? Are you voting “yes” because anything is better than what we have now? Or because they’re everywhere, so it’s “too late”? It’s not.

For example, Maine does already have a beautiful, unique design that features a pine tree and star and came about as a result of an open, statewide, Legislature-instigated, real design contest overseen by then-Secretary of State Matt Dunlap in 2019. The final design won 59% support from 6,500 online survey respondents. It is Maine’s Bicentennial Flag.

Maine’s bicentennial flag, as voted on by 6,500 survey respondents in 2019. Image courtesy of Maine Secretary of State’s Office

I once fleetingly saw this design, but never saw it again; it vanished along with our public lives and our centennial celebrations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But while commercial entities flooded the market with the buff flag, I knew Maine had something better. It took me way longer than it should have to find it, but I finally did, and even found the name of the Mainer who designed it.

Jeff Van West’s winning design features a pine tree in the foreground, extending off the flag border to give the feeling of standing next to it in the forest looking out over the water. Beyond it, light blue represents Maine’s rivers, ponds and oceanfront. Above the water is the dark blue of the sky with the north star shining above. The original submission had a simple five-pointed white star. The Bicentennial’s star is more complex.

This flag is a winner in every sense; it checks all the boxes: bold graphics easily replicated, beautiful colors, historical reference to the pine tree, Maine’s waters and the North Star. It feels like home.

Vote “no” on the buff flag. We can choose a better symbol for our state of which we can all be proud.