INSIDE THIS ISSUE: The Confederate Flag Flap

1Portland Flag AssociationPortland Flag Association“Free, and Worth Every Penny!”Issue 53 August 2015The Confederate Flag FlapINSIDE THIS ISSUE:The Confederate Flag Flap1July 2015 Flutterings2Flags of the Rose Festival Fleet4A Flag for Pluto4Flower Bed / Oregon Flag Registry5The Cascadian Nautical Flag6The Flag Quiz7Portland Flag Miscellany8Next Meeting8www.portlandflag.orgBy Ted KayeIn June, the flag world witnesseda huge shift in attitudes toward theConfederate Battle Flag. Following the race-based shootings inCharleston, South Carolina, publicopinion moved swiftly towardremoving the flag from public displays and from merchant shelves.“Few emblems in Americanhistory have provoked strongerpassions than the battle flag ofthe vanquished Confederacy.To some it symbolizes honor andindependence; to others, hatredand slavery”, says Tony Horwitz,in Confederates in the Attic (1998).Usually only an occasional interviewguest discussing flag topics in localand national media, for two weeksI found myself speaking daily—toSlate, NPR, National Geographic,CNN, PBS, Georgia Public Radio,KXL Radio (in Portland)—providing history, background, andperspective on the controversy.We are not going to allowthis symbol to divide usany longer.—South Carolina GovernorNikki HaleyIronically, the work for which Imay be best known, the flag-designguidebook Good Flag, Bad Flag,quotes the National Flag Committee of the Confederate States ofAmerica in describing what makesa successful flag design.Top-name retailers, flag manufacturers, and flag dealers tripped overthemselves to stop selling or making the flags—although Huntsville’s Alabama Flag & Bannerramped up production and sales!Here in Portland, The Oregoniandescribed how Dave Anchel, PFAmember and owner of Elmer’s Flag& Banner, consulted his staff andhis conscience, and decided toremove the flag from display, onlyoffering it for sale from behind thecounter. Regardless, his entirestock sold out the next day.In likely the most newsworthy aspect of the controversy, the battleflag came down from the Confederate Soldiers monument on theSouth Carolina statehouse grounds.Prediction: Mississippi’s state flagwill be the next target for change.For more information, consultThe Confederate Battle Flag, America’sMost Embattled Emblem by John M.Coski (2005). It provides a stronghistory of the flag and its evolvinguse from 1861 to the present.If you wish to compliment the editor, or to contribute in the future, contact Ted Kayeat 503-223-4660 or kandsons@aol.com. If you wish to complain, call your mother.

2The Vexilloid TabloidJuly 2015 Flutterings You Need to KnowIn our July meeting, hosted by TedKaye, 16 PFA members enjoyed alively 3 -hour evening of flags andother wide-ranging topics. As thehost, Ted led the introductions andmoderated the discussion.John Schilke exulted in seeing aphoto of a Roerich flag displayedon SE Stephens St.) and gave abrief description of its creator andits purpose—to protect culturalsites in wartime—(see VT #20).Michael Orelove gave updates onhis flags-for-educational-purposessolicitations, showed off some flagsand burgees, and passed aroundthe results of his writing off forstate seals—40 of 50 states haveresponded so far.David Koski described his projectto facilitate flag image constructionusing Adobe InDesign, with layersfor standard flag components—heshowed resulting example flags.Ted Kaye provides a summary of the flags of the Confederacy, displaying the firstnational flag, the “Stars and Bars” as John Schilke and Fred Paltridge look on.Ted Kaye led a discussion of theConfederate Battle Flag controversy, using actual flags to illustratethe history of the CSA’s flag use.He has been very actively givinginterviews in the past two weeks atthe local and national levels on thatand other subjects (see p. 1).Lorraine Bushek, joining us for thefirst time, described her work as anartist, including the 3rd-place finalist in the 2009 Oregon flag redesign effort.David Koski shows some results fromhis flag image generator.August 2015Lorraine Bushek describes her finalistentry for the Oregon flag redesign.Ken Dale reflected on the symbolism of the U.S. Capitol building—whose construction continuedeven during the Civil War.Scott Mainwaring noted that cellphone cases featuring the Portlandflag orient upside-down when taking a vertical photo. He created acorrect version on Zazzle.com. Hehas also made versions of “homemade” U.S. flags, with “randomlyperturbed” stars and colors.Scott Mainwaring and his U.S. flagwith “randomly perturbed” stars.

3Portland Flag AssociationCasey Sims sings a song inspired by his new personal flag, enjoyed byRobert Izatt, Ken Dale, and Dennis Stephens.Some of the stranger New Zealandentries amuse Max Liberman.Max Liberman consulted with theassembled members on agendaitems for the 24th general assemblyof FIAV in Sydney in September;he and Ted were named delegateand alternate. He then sharedsome of the thousands of submissions for a new flag for New Zealand—the good and the bad.Nathaniel Mainwaring, who enters4th grade this fall, updated us onhis Minecraft-based flag work,featuring zombie pig-men.Casey Sims described the development of his personal flag, andclosed his presentation with a songon his guitar.Patrick Genna displayed a recentGoodwill acquisition—a large flagof Antigua & Barbuda and distributed a fact sheet about it.Robert Izatt described the crowdfunding campaign for the Cascadian Flag-Making Cooperative.David Ferriday showed his latestflag-based art and noted that arecent local flag store’s ad depictsthe Portland flag upside-down Alexander Baretich debuts a topicalvariant of his Cascadia flag.Alexander Baretich shared some ofhis recent designs, including theCascadia nautical flag (see p. 6),religious flags, and another bioregional flag—that of Danubia.Dennis Stephens lauded the recentRoman Mars TED Talk on cityflag design: “Why city flags may bethe worst-designed think you’venever noticed” (ted.com), andshowed the flag stickers on his laptop documenting his travels.The meeting started at 7:00 andadjourned at 10:20, reflecting thehost’s poor timekeeping ability.Nathaniel Mainwaring shares hisMinecraft-based flag.David Ferriday fooled everyonewhen unfurling a black military flag.Our next meeting will be at thehome of Larry Snyder on Sept.10th. Patrick took the PortlandFlag Association flag for him—thecustomary task of the next host.

4The Vexilloid TabloidFlags of the Rose Festival FleetBy Scott MainwaringEvery June, Portland’s Rose Festival welcomes “the fleet” from theUS and Canada. Moored along theWillamette river, the ships display acolorful range of flags to see—ensigns, jacks, signal flags, andcourtesy flags.The maritime signal flag “K”, thePOW-MIA flag, and the Portland cityflag fly on the USCGC Waesche.A large Maple Leaf Flag, along withmany smaller flags, flies from the sailing ketch HMCS Oriole, a CanadianNavy sail training vessel (launched in1921, she is the oldest commissionedship in the Royal Canadian Navy).The Canadian Naval Ensign flies fromthe frigate HMCS Calgary (FFH 335).The Union Jack of the United Statesflies from the bow of USCGC Waesche(WMSL-751), a National SecurityCutter. She flies the traditional U.S.jack—only US Navy ships are flyingthe so-called First Navy Jack with therattlesnake.A Flag for Plutoby Scott MainwaringOn 13 July the New Horizons probesent an image of Pluto dominatedby Tombaugh Regio, a large feature informally called “the heart”.Inspired, I created a flag for Pluto:its astrological symbol in orange, ina white heart, on black (for space).I chose the astrological over theastronomical symbol ( ) as itssymmetry makes it more flagfriendly. The aspect ratio of 1:1 isAugust 2015the closest a rectangle can come tothe circular shape of the (dwarf)planet; and distinguishes it fromstandard terrestrial flags.The “heart” of Pluto from 476,000miles. Image taken by New Horizonson 13 July 2015.Source: NASA/APL/SwRI

5Portland Flag AssociationWhat’s in the Flower Bed This Year?Every year, Michael Orelove plantshis “flower bed” to represent aflag. Since 2010 he has grown theU.S., Oregon, U.K., Canada, andAlaska flags. This year he honorshis native city, Chicago.The flag has a white field with twohorizontal light-blue stripes andfour red stars arranged horizontallyin the center. The blue stripessymbolize Lake Michigan and theChicago River. The stars representFort Dearborn, the Great ChicagoFire of 1871, the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, and theCentury of Progress Exposition of1933. The stars are six-pointedPROJECT STATUS118Michael Orelove’s “flower bed” features the flag of Chicago, Illinois.The 26th International Congress ofVexillology (ICV 26) will takeplace in Sydney, Australia, 31 August–4 September.See: icv26.com.auTotal Entries Assigned16Total Entries CompletedThe Oregon Flag Registry is underway: oregonflagregistry.org. Contact Scott Mainwaring to join theteam: info@portlandflag.org.Ted Kaye recently completed theentry of the flag the Chinook tribe,based in Washington, with members in Oregon. From his entry:If Canada, the United States, andMexico were to join to form aNorth American Union, whatwould the resulting flag look like?Coming up this year are two majorvexillological events.32Chinook Indian Nationby Michael OreloveResidents of each country can easily recognize the color and designelements of their national flag in it.Total Prospects Identified(sharper points than the sixpointed Star of David on Israel’sflag). The number of stars has increased from two over the years.The white flowers are alyssum andpetunias.North American Flag?Mike Hale, the former owner ofElmer’s Flag and Banner, put thisflag together for me.Oregon Flag RegistryUpdateMichael Orelove combinesthree national flags into one.[Editor’s note: The same flag appeared onthe cover of a special issue of the John BirchSociety’s magazine, The New American, in Oct.2007. The flag was manufactured for thecover photo shoot. See NAVA News #196.]NAVA’s 49th Annual Meeting(NAVA 49) will take place inOttawa, Ontario, 16–18 October.See: nava.org/all-annual-meetings/nava-49-2015PFA memberswill attend both!Adopted January, 2003, the flagplaces a stylized Chinook salmonin the style of Northwest CoastIndian art in black and red on afield of white. Centered on itsstomach are the contours of ahuman face.The flag’s salmon image is thetribe’s logo, designed by TonyJohnson. An accomplished artistand canoe carver, he also led theCultural Affairs Committee whichadopted the flag.The Chinook Tribe has struggledfor years in its pursuit of federalrecognition; the flag creates a banner for members to rally around.