Last year, Illinois passed legislation creating a 20-member commission to review the state flag. Its charge was to determine whether a new state flag “would better represent the state’s diversity of urban, suburban, and rural communities and inspire renewed state pride among Illinoisians.”
I can only imagine the work that went into this project — approving the law, appointing the commissioners, soliciting submissions, reviewing 4,800 of them, and creating a process that received nearly 385,000 votes. The end result? The current flag was the winner.
It is a worthwhile exercise to redesign a flag to remove a Confederate symbol (as Georgia and Mississippi have) but to invest resources in such an elaborate process because of personal preferences seems to be unnecessary.
There are times when revisiting a policy or reviewing materials is prudent to help reaffirm values or ensure that practices are in line with changing circumstances. But certain things should remain constant. Not every idea needs to be run up the flag pole.
