SPRINGFIELD, Unwell. — Flags engender such loyalty and delight, they frequently change into very private trademarks with quirky or old fashioned nicknames: Previous Glory, Union Jack, Maple Leaf — or SOB.
That will be (state) “Seal on a Bedsheet,” the derisive moniker with which some have harassed the Illinois state flag, a gleaming white banner emblazoned with the state’s bald eagle-themed logo.
Some forward-looking lawmakers arrange a competition to design a brand new flag and put it to a vote. In a landslide, a winner was once selected.
And it is the present flag.
Of just about 385,000 votes forged, the present bunting won 43% — extra tallies than the following six finalists blended.
“Some might name it an SOB and the vexillogical neighborhood (flag mavens) might hate it, however other people overwhelmingly favor our present state flag,” mentioned Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias, whose archivist chairs the Illinois Flag Fee. Its individuals have been selected through the governor, legislative leaders and state training and museum directors.
Created in 1915, the present logo is a white box that includes the state seal followed in 1868: A bald eagle prior to a emerging solar, a protect in its talons and in its beak, a banner expressing the Prairie State’s twin tenets: “State Sovereignty, Nationwide Union.” In 1970, “Illinois” in block letters was once added on the backside.
Closing fall, citizens have been invited to publish their imaginative and prescient for a brand new usual. Greater than 4,800 did — maximum of them critical. The fee whittled it down to ten finalists, then added the present 1915 flag, and banners created for the state’s 1918 Centennial and 1968 Sesquicentennial.
“What I attempted to put across to other people was once, this isn’t a procedure this is mandating a brand new flag. We’re going to check the waters and notice what other people say, so I recognize the ones effects,” mentioned Rep. Kam Buckner, who subsidized the regulation developing the flag inquiry.
However the Chicago Democrat was once fast to show that whilst the present flag won just about 166,000 votes, there have been 219,000 votes for brand spanking new colours. “There have been extra individuals who concept that perhaps we must transfer in a brand new path,” mentioned Buckner, who discovered the competition’s runner-up — a star-haloed solar emerging above converging inexperienced stripes of prairie — to be “tremendous cool.”
It isn’t over simply but. The Basic Meeting will get the general say. On the other hand, Buckner doubts there will probably be an urge for food to switch route given the overpowering vote for the established order.
Without reference to the end result, Buckner mentioned the competition, which drew entries from more than a few areas of the state and from old and young, achieved a part of his purpose: “Ginning up some delight about Illinois.”
“This jogged my memory that folks in point of fact care about the place they are living, and care about the best way we provide ourselves to others,” Buckner mentioned.
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This tale has been up to date to proper the spelling of Buckner’s identify.
