“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands … ”

As a Boy Scout, I sometimes wondered why we pledged allegiance to the flag ahead of even the republic. Then as now, I thought the republic more important than any of its symbols.

Symbols are shorthand, widely recognized, usually within a fairly narrow range of meanings. So, when we see a picture of a lobster, most of us think, “Yum,” or “Pass the butter” or Maine.

And symbols are important. So important that for decades states have been altering their symbols, especially their state flags, to proclaim their history, culture and politics. Or at least the history, culture and politics of the majority in the legislature.

When I see the current Maine flag, my first thought is, “I lead.” But not all Mainers like our flag. We’ll vote next year on keeping our blue flag with sailor, farmer and moose guided by the north star, or to return to the 1901 pine tree flag with north star.

Most press images of the pine tree flag aren’t the original 1901 flag. They are stylized drawings of that flag, looking a bit like a collage of cardboard triangles pasted together to resemble a generic conifer. The actual 1901 flag showed a more realistic pine, roots and all. A merchant marine version adds an anchor entwined in the roots and, sometimes, “Maine” and/or “Dirigo.”

Beyond flags, states use other symbols. No one who has been to downtown Richmond, Virginia (before last year), can forget the statue of Robert E. Lee. His was the last of a dozen or so statues taken down, including those of J.E.B. Stuart and “Stonewall” Jackson, both rebel generals.

Levar Stoney, Richmond mayor, told the Associated Press, “Those statues stood high for over 100 years for a reason … to show Black and brown people in this city who was in charge.”

You likely recall the removal in 2015 of the confederate flag from the state capital grounds in Columbia, South Carolina, following the slaughter of nine Black people at prayer in a church.

It’s not as if South Carolina didn’t have another flag to display. Its state flag depicts a palmetto tree and crescent. Neither is an obvious rebel symbol, but some accounts say the palmetto stood for secession. In response to the civil rights movement, the palmetto state put the “stars and bars” on the state house grounds in 1961. Sorta confirms what the mayor of Richmond said.

Other states retain rebel symbols in their flags, most notably Alabama and Florida, which use the crossed red bars of the rebel battle flag. Arkansas’s flag has three stars representing the countries that had held sovereignty there — Spain, France and the United States. The legislature added the fourth in 1923, placing it above the other three. See mayor of Richmond again.

The importance of these symbols, especially the flags, came up in a discussion the other night with my older son. “Why don’t they just change to a more acceptable symbol?” he asked about southerners. “They have so much else they could use as symbols, all positive.”

He went on to mention mountains, which rise in most southern states; and writers, who come from such states as Mississippi and Florida; musicians, who come in disproportionate numbers from Texas and settle in Tennessee; rivers, which define the landscape of every southern state.

As one who climbed Mount Le Conte in North Carolina in 1954, I know the majesty of the Great Smoky and other Appalachian ranges. The writing of Eudora Welty, William Faulkner (Mississippi) and Zora Neale Hurston (Florida) has enriched us. The music of Willie Nelson, Nancy Griffith and Rodney Crowell (all Texans) has enriched us. The Mississippi, Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers provided riverfronts for major cities.

Any mountain/river or writer/musician symbolism would be more positive and more inclusive.

But no, way too many folks cling to the “Lost Cause” view of history, in which gallant young (white) southern lads defend their homeland against Yankee invaders, fighting to the bitter end.

An aside. Campaigning last year for the Maine House of Representatives, I went to virtually every house of my list of voters. Trump sign in the yard? Knock, knock, knock. But I wouldn’t talk to anyone showing a confederate flag on lawn, house or pickup. It’s a flag of treason.

The Pledge of Allegiance, by the way, was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a socialist and Baptist pastor. It read: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Edits in 1923 and 1954 created today’s form.

As Jennifer Finney Boylan of Rome wrote in The New York Times, citing Dave Martucci, who lives in Knox County and is past president of the American Vexillological Association, the meaning of flags “lies in the consciousness of the person looking at them. Whether a flag evokes our most idealized sense of history or the harshness of our present reality probably says more about who we are than it does about the flag itself.”

In other words, “When you wave the flag, the flag is also waving you,” she wrote.

Bob Neal still puts the republic, not to mention our most important institutions, above the flag. But as Select Board chair in New Sharon, he proudly opened every meeting with the Pledge. Neal can be reached at bobneal@myfairpoint.net.

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