The BDN Editorial Board operates independently from the newsroom, and does not set policies or contribute to reporting or editing articles elsewhere in the newspaper or on bangordailynews.com.
Almost by accident, Mainers are finally going to have the chance to settle the debate about Maine’s state flag this November.
Though lawmakers passed a bill, unnecessary in our opinion, that would have created a state commission to keep reviewing this issue for two more years, an impasse with Gov. Janet Mills means that bill will not become law. While the dysfunction on display is nothing to celebrate, especially as some important bills will go unfunded, we do welcome an end to the state flag deliberation.
At the risk of sounding like curmudgeons, we’ll suggest once again that this debate has already gone on long enough. Clearly, people have strong feelings about which flag best represents Maine — the current version with a blue background featuring the state seal with a pine tree, moose, farmer and seaman; or the 1901 version with a lone green pine tree and a blue star set in a buff background.
Our strongest feeling on the subject has long been that there are more consequential matters for the Legislature and the state in general to be considering. Lawmakers appropriately moved to place this decision in the hands of voters last year, and it’s past time to actually put the two flags in front of voters, and let them choose.
Republican Sen. Rick Bennett has been a strong and reasonable voice in the push to settle this debate.
“I think it’s about time we make a decision on this,” Bennett said earlier this spring, as reported by Maine Public. “The people of Maine are ready.”
We understand that the Maine secretary of state’s office, which would oversee the referendum and already has a lot of critical work to attend to in a presidential election year, supported creating this commission. We still think, however, that enough time and energy has already been dedicated to this flag debate.
One of the main proponents of changing the Maine flag was former Rep. Sean Paulhus, a Democrat from Bath who left the Legislature to serve as the register of probate for Sagadahoc County. In comments to the Portland Press Herald last year, he accidentally captured our sentiments perfectly about this entire debate.
Expressing surprise about how partisan the debate became, Paulhus said, “It’s just a flag.”
Well, that’s exactly how we feel, for different reasons. It’s just a flag, and we’re surprised the issue has gotten this much attention at all. November 2024 is as good a time as any to settle this question.
Republican Sen. Eric Brakey of Auburn rightly proposed last year that Maine voters, rather than lawmakers, should have the ultimate say on the flag choice. He too sounds ready for that decision.
“Presidential years are always huge turnout for Maine,” Brakey said recently. “We have that opportunity now. It would be, I think, a mistake to pass that up.”
If voters want to change the flag, then let’s do it. We’ll admit, the comparisons being drawn between the pine tree flag and a revolutionary-era flag that has more recently been associated with supporters of Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, gives us pause about a potential change. But please forgive us if we don’t spend too much time and energy vacillating on a graphic design choice, given the scope of real issues facing Mainers every day. Let’s focus on those, and let’s wrap this flag debate up as soon as possible.
