This legislative session a lot of old bills are coming before lawmakers.
One of them is to redesign the state flag by using the profile of the Old Man of the Mountain.
But as NHPR's Dan Gorenstein reports maybe this year, given the sentiment for the old man, the proposal will fly.
4:24 would you grab the other side of it. This is, what you see, the ship out of there, with the old man in there. Obviously you could put the nine stars there...could be touched up. That?s what that baby would look like.
Senator Jack Barnes rolled out his 5 by 8 flag for the Senate Internal Affairs Committee.
In large part, Barnes? flag resembles the current one.
A deep blue background, laurel leaves and nine stars in a circle.
But Barnes?s flag replaces the image of the Revolutionary-era frigate, USS Raleigh, with the profile of the old man of the mountain.
15:21 what we have here is a warship built in the state of Maine. It was captured by the British killed American soldiers and sailors. And it is named after a pipe tobacco, so why in the world would we want to promote tobacco when we are trying to get kids to stop smoking. Foreign ship built in a state other than ours...the reason it?s on there is b/c early days, ship building was the big deal in NH.
Retired school teacher and life-long Manchester resident Hubert McDonough agrees with Barnes.
The current flag needs to go.
8:23 I don?t mean to denigrate the Raleigh...I just don?t think the Raleigh looks good on a flag. It?s a boat on a beach. It?s not really inspiring right?
But he doesn?t completely embrace Barnes plan either.
McDonoguh?s complains New Hampshire?s flag, just like 25 other states? flags, doesn?t use the whole field.
7:52 I think in our mind we should think, full flag, full flag. Not just the circle in the middle. think of the other, oh, our neighbors, Maine and Vermont, I hate to denigrate our neighbors, but boy you have to chuckle some kind of pine tree in the middle of theirs and the other one, there?s two fellas looking at a tree. One of them is a settler or something. Some of these are bad.
4:03 .... here, you will see blue, and blue, and more blue. Blue. And I love this state so much that it should be represented better. That?s the only reason I am pushing this thing. I don?t want my name put anywhere, I want my flag representing my state better than it does.
Another thing that bothers Senator Barnes is that nobody even knows the name of the ship, especially the scores of school kids that travel to the statehouse.
Track 6
1:28 over the past two months, I?ve probably had ten classes of 4th and 5th graders come through. We have them in the chamber pledge to the flag, and show them the flag. There has not been one 4th grader in the state of New Hampshire that knew the name of that ship. It was the Mayflower, it was the Titanic, it was the Normandy, they didn?t know. These are our school children in the state of NH.
As luck would have it, the East Derry Memorial Elementary school 4th grade classes were at the state house Wednesday.
Track 11
3:00 ramp up your thinking caps...
Statehouse visitor center director Ken Leidner.
...there is a ship on the state seal. Think about what you learned in class. The Raleigh. Excellent. She did know.
It was either a one in a million chance, or... more 4th graders know about the Raleigh than Senator Barnes knew.
Senator Joe Kenney is drafting an amendment to create a state flag redesign commission.
But he doesn?t think the current flag is THAT bad.
Track
6:55 ...I think some of the people in the committee would suggest it doesn?t have a lot of pizzazz when you bring it to a parade in Pasedena, but without going overboard, I think the flag needs a little bit of up lift, we can create a little pride, preserve the history of our state, and something that meshes well with the state. And I think the people would go along with an old man in the mountain depiction in our flag.
State Representative Crow Dickinson says the bill is well intentioned, but it really isn?t necessary.
Track 19
:11 I think it?s a terrible idea. we?ve had this flag. Everybody identifies with it. You see it all over the place. It?s silly to change that, although I agree the old man is a significant symbol, was, still is. But I think we should stick with the flag, b/c what will happen is everybody will have to go out and pay a lot of money.
When asked about the flag bill, one veteran statehouse staffer cracked if we changed the flag every time someone introduced a bill, we wouldn?t have a state flag, we?d have a state quilt.
For NHPR News, I?m DG.
