Goodbye to the Washington flag?

Our flag depicts the state seal on a green background. Circling the head of George Washington, it reads: “The Seal of the State of Washington 1889”. I would say that this flag does represent our state, however, seals and words are not ideal symbols to have on a flag.

The best flags have simple, and brightly colored designs. As our flag majestically billows in the wind, the face of George Washington is being majorly contorted, and no one can read those tiny letters from 50 feet away. Most of us can probably recognize the Brazilian flag, since the Olympics were held there this summer, but do you know what the words say? It says “Ordem e progresso,” but the words are too small and easily distorted for many people to read easily.

Changing a flag may seem like breaking a tradition of some sort, but we didn’t adopt our flag until 1923, 34 years after being admitted to the union, so our flag is not as old as the state, and it has not ‘been like this from the beginning.’ I think our state’s citizens as very open minded people, and I think that if we wanted a change, we could get one. To design a new flag, we could call upon the creative minds of our residents, and ask them to design a flag that may be even more meaningful and personal than that current one.

This story was originally published January 18, 2017 at 6:46 PM with the headline "Goodbye to the Washington flag?."