Is it Time to Redesign the California State Flag?

Redesigning the iconic California bear flag comes to mind because several states around the country have redesigned or are considering remaking their state flags. If California opened a process for overhauling the state flag, what could a new flag reveal about the current essence of California.

The California flag derives directly from the Bear Flag Revolt of 1846. The current design was officially adopted by the legislature in 1911. The majestic grizzly bear striding left across a grassy patch (no need to change the bear’s direction in these political times, I grant you), with a red star in the upper left that pays tribute to an earlier effort to declare California’s independence from Mexico.

Notably, the flag carries the phrase California Republic.

With today’s politics, many residents see California as a republic—independent from much of the country and a leading nation-state in its own right. For many Californians, California Republic stands as a rebuke to the Trump administration with which state leadership is constantly at war. There will be little sentiment to remove the California Republic phrase from a remodeled flag.

Yet, a state whose leaders claim the entire state is united by what they call “California values,” ignores a simmering pot of difficulties, and discontent within the state’s borders.

Veteran California journalist Dan Walters recently observed what he called former Vice-President Kamala Harris’s odd remark for not running for governor. She didn’t want to engage with a system that was broken. Walters suggested, “she could also have been implying the state was broken after many years of dominance by her Democratic Party.”

California can be represented on a flag by many images that reflect the multi-dimensional aspects of the country’s most influential state. But this exercise is about a political interpretation of current California. What symbol can capture this period in which even Harris’s comment mentioned above can be seen as a rebuke of a fumbling one-party rule?

I have a modest suggestion.

In the spirit promoted by California’s Governor Gavin Newsom in his new rebellious role using mockery to make political points, let me offer the following: Replace the grizzly bear with the bullet train.

Unfortunately, grizzly bears are gone from California, but the bullet train survives despite delays, cost overruns, financial, construction and projected ridership miscalculations, and lost support from the federal government.

The high-speed rail train seems to echo an arrogance embraced by government officials to charge ahead; financial reality and citizens needs be damned.

The bullet train rather than the grizzly bear has become a new pet for the powers that be in Sacramento. For a project that was first projected when on the ballot in 2008 to cost $33 billion to run the train from San Francisco to Los Angeles that was supposed to be operating by now, currently we are looking at an abbreviated Central Valley version not yet completed and an estimated cost for the L.A. to S.F. construction of more than $100 billion. The legislature has now committed a billion dollars a year to the bullet train through 2045.

The fastest train, the slowest arrival time.

I like the bear flag. It represents a more hopeful, optimistic time. A simple vision of a striving, powerful state respectful of its natural wonders. But that image no longer reflects troubled, modern-day California