The New Look Utah Flag: It's Just a Flag, Right?

If you've been watching social media in the past couple of weeks, there's been a big flap over the new Utah state flag.

One commenter said, " I've been all over this state of ours and I haven't had one single person say they like the new flag design better than the old flag."

Another Facebook friend of mind begs to differ, saying the new flag looked almost precisely like the view out his front window, with red rocks making up the bottom part of the view, then a line of white (snow covered) mountains and then blue sky.

The new flag I l believe looks pretty sharp, a modern design with a paying of homage to the old beehive of industry for the state of Utah.

Someone suggested that it was yet another example of woke-ism in modern times, though, and that gave me pause as I thought about what changing the flag may mean.

After some contemplation though, I've decided that that notion was flawed. We can't take every move as an offense to the old way of doing things.

I was up in front of the charge of resistance when it came to trying to expunge the Dixie Spirit from this area. I was aghast when they started tearing down statues of men like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson around the country. And I was severely disappointed when schools countrywide were changing their names because it was perceived that the person the school was named after was racist in some way.

Like many of you, I came to detest woke-ism and all it represented.

Stop tearing down our past, I wanted to scream!

But this is different.

First of all, the Utah flag has changed seven times throughout the state's 127 year history. Making an improvement or a modern adjustment isn't woke-ism, but a smart update.

Second of all, the new flag doesn't in any way cater to the "woke" crowd, but rather presents a new feel for what Utah is all about. On the Utah State website, it says:

"... our state's most important symbols are our mountain landscapes and the beehive, which represents our state nickname and, industry, our state slogan. These symbols, drawn from the state seal on Utah's historic flag, serve as the anchors of the new design."

Even Senator MIke Lee (R, UT) wrote an opinion piece in the Deseret News saying the new flag is a huge positive.

"Utah deserves a flag as distinctive as its people. The newly proposed flag offers an opportunity to tell Utah’s story to the world in a way they can understand and remember."

And this rendering brings it all home:

By the way, did you know St. George has a new-ish flag as well?:

Past Utah flags: