There are many mysteries in life and one of them is how a state panel convened to design a new flag and seal for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts can spend more than three years and $100,000 yet fail completely to accomplish its mission. An even more impenetrable mystery is why anyone would imagine that the best response to such a failure is to convene yet another government panel and give it another $100,000 to do the same thing.
The Globe’s Matt Stout has for years been covering Beacon Hill’s inability to fashion a new state flag. In 2021, he reported that the Special Commission Relative to the Seal and Motto of the Commonwealth had managed to meet exactly twice in the 46 weeks since it was created. Pretty much all it agreed on was that it needed more time and a bunch of cash. So the Legislature extended its deadline — three times — and endowed the panel with $100,000.
It achieved nothing.
“A state commission created nearly three years ago to recommend changes to Massachusetts’s controversial state seal and motto,” Stout reported last November, “is disbanding without offering specific substitutes for either, saying that a new body should be created to ‘carry forward’ its work.”
Now comes more of the same.
The state Senate’s fiscal 2025 budget plan includes yet another 100 grand for yet another panel to take yet another crack at redesigning the state flag. The deadline would be one year from the panel’s creation. If you believe the Legislature will get the job done this time, I admire the intensity of your faith.
The existing state flag comprises three basic elements: (1) a blue shield featuring a standing Algonquian Native American holding a bow and arrow; (2) a blue ribbon with the Latin motto Ense petit placidam, sub libertate quietem (“By the sword we seek peace, but peace only under liberty”); and (3) an arm holding a sword.
It seems clear that the sword, which is above and outside the blue shield, is unrelated to everything below it and does not symbolize violence against Native Americans. According to Leonid Kondratiuk, a longtime military historian who sat on the earlier flag commission, such a sword represents “the arm of God protecting the Commonwealth” and often appears on European seals and flags.
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Nevertheless, there have been complaints for years about the subliminal message conveyed by the image of the raised sword above the Native American. “We’ve always referred to it as a sword of Damocles,” Cheryl Andrews-Maltais, chair of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), told the Globe in 2022.
Former state representative Byron Rushing of Boston first introduced legislation to change the design in the mid-1980s. Rushing is a serious man, the former president of the Roxbury Historical Society and Boston’s Museum of African American History. If he agrees with those who regarded the sword as unsuitable, that clinches it for me: The sword should be removed.
The Latin motto should be removed too. Why include a declaration that almost no one viewing the flag understands? Even when translated, the motto is awkward. Besides, words on flags almost always diminish their attractiveness.
Conversely, when the flag commission undertook a survey of public opinion, a majority of Native American respondents indicated a preference for retaining an Indigenous person on the state’s seal and standard. The existing figure is stately, realistic, and manifestly relevant to Massachusetts history. Why not remove everything from the current flag except the likeness of the Native American? No ribbon, no motto, no sword, no shield — just the Indigenous man, all in gold, standing at the center of a field of white: an embodiment of dignity. That would give Massachusetts a truly striking state flags. It would retain a clear connection to the traditional flag, while eliminating elements that many find distressing or anachronistic.
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Above all, it would be beautiful. The most visually arresting flags are simple, unique, limited to two colors, and free of words. That is why the flags of Alaska, New Mexico, and South Carolina are such standouts, while those of many other states are forgettable. A Massachusetts flag depicting a standing Algonquian would be memorable and appealing, and an improvement over what the Commonwealth has now.
This issue has been kicking around Beacon Hill for 40 years. How much longer must this fecklessness continue? Alaska’s lovely flag — eight stars forming the Big Dipper and the North Star — was created by Benny Benson, a 14-year-old Alaska Native, for a design competition held in 1927. For his winning entry, Benson received $1,000, a watch, and a trip to Washington, D.C.
Alaska didn’t need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on wheel-spinning commissions to end up with a beguiling state flag. Massachusetts doesn’t either. I happily offer my proposal for an elegant “Standing Algonquian” flag as a public service. All the Legislature need do now is vote its approval and the long quest for a fitting new flag will be over.
An invitation to readers: Now that you know how I think the flag of Massachusetts should be redesigned, I’d like your ideas. What is your best suggestion for an appealing and appropriate flag? Please send me an image of what you envision, along with a brief explanation of why you think it should be the Commonwealth’s new standard. I’ll share the most intriguing and noteworthy proposals with Globe readers in a future column.
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This column is adapted from the current issue of Arguable, Jeff Jacoby’s newsletter. To subscribe to Arguable, visit globe.com/arguable. Jeff Jacoby can be reached at jeff.jacoby@globe.com. Follow him on X @jeff_jacoby.
