Let’s pick a flag image we can be proud of
Shortly after I came to South Carolina in 1984, my friends dubbed me an honorary South Carolinian. In keeping with this great honor, I decided to become an ambassador for the state.
In nearly 20 years of traveling, I have placed thousands of stickers of the state flag everywhere I have been. I have returned years later to some spots to find my flag stickers still there, whether on the side of a commercial airliner or in the Haufbrau Haus in Munich. When my step-daughters were younger, they would see the flag sticker on the back of the Gamecocks’ football helmets and wonder how I was able to “stick” them.
All of which brings me to Scott Malyerck’s complaint about how the Palmetto tree on our state flag has changed (“Could we please stop changing S.C. flag?” April 30).
My concern started when I noticed that every state agency seemed to have a different image of the Palmetto. Alas, almost every store seems to sell a different image of the Palmetto. The Palmetto on our state flag does not match the one on the state seal.
Our flag has on it an image of the Sabal Palmetto, our state tree.
As a lifetime member of the International Palm Society, I have seen my share of palms — in print, in the field, in my yard. The Sabal Palmetto is one of the most beautiful, symmetrical palms in the world.
And that’s my point: We need to give our state the Sabal Palmetto it deserves.
I would like the governor to appoint me and Scott Malyerck to head a volunteer committee to solicit images of the perfect Sabal Palmetto, whether it be a drawing, a photograph or a computer image. Our committee would choose the perfect Sabal Palmetto from the hundreds if not thousands of images that we would judge.
South Carolina would finally have a Palmetto image to place on our flag that appealed to everyone. The state could license the image and make a little money, and we, as citizens of South Carolina, could finally look proudly upon our one flag honoring the battle of Fort Moultrie.
Joel Johnson
Warrenville