‘Woke,’ white nationalist, or just a symbol of the state? The answer, truly, is blowing in the wind.

Maine voters will decide in November whether to adopt the “Lone Pine” flag, top, inspired by the state’s original flag from 1901, or to stick with the current design, which features the state seal.

Ahead of a November referendum on replacing Maine’s flag with a modernized version of the original design from 120 years ago, a debate is brewing on what the design really represents.

Question 5 on the Nov. 5 ballot will ask voters if Maine’s “Lone Pine” flag design from 1901 should replace the current “Dirigo” flag, which features the state seal on a blue background.

The referendum is flapping up debate among both voters and legislators about the look and meanings of each flag. The discussion, like so many other things in our lives, has become part of a broader culture war.

Some see the Lone Pine design as an aesthetic improvement over the current flag. Others see the proposal as a push by the “woke left” to change Maine’s identity and history.

Many others lie somewhere in between, with their own take on what the flags mean to them.

DIRIGO FLAG ‘JUST FEELS DATED’

The proposed flag is simple. A pine tree stands in the center of a beige background beneath a blue star in the upper left corner.

Its proponents say the design is distinctive, recognizable and already more popular than the current Dirigo design.

One such supporter is Krysta Pelletier, who flies the Lone Pine flag outside her home in Waterville.

Pelletier, like many other Mainers, hadn’t really considered the design and meaning of either flag until the referendum was placed on the November ballot.

Though she’s been flying the Lone Pine flag for several years now, Pelletier said she isn’t sure how she’ll vote in November as she hadn’t considered the referendum until an interview with the Morning Sentinel.

“I like them both, I really like the simplicity of the new one, but I see the history of the current one,” she said. “Honestly, you don’t think much about flags, but now it’s going to be kind of hard not to.”

Critics of the current Dirigo design, which features the Maine shield in the center of a blue background, say it is not distinctive enough from other state flags, nearly half of which are also an emblem on a blue background.

David Martucci is a longtime vexillologist, or someone who studies the history and design of flags. He’s a Knox County resident who has been a staunch advocate of the Lone Pine flag for years, in large part because of how different the design is from every other state flag in the country.

“There are 22 state flags that are blue with a state emblem in the middle, usually the seal or the coat of arms,” Martucci said during a Portland Press Herald Newsroom Live event this week. “When there’s a display of all 50 flags and nearly half of them are blue, it’s really hard to tell which are which.”

Although previous attempts in 2019 and 2021 to reintroduce the Lone Pine flag were ultimately rejected by the Legislature, the design has seen increasing popularity and usage among Mainers since the Portland-based Maine Flag Co. began selling a simplified version of the flag in 2017.

Jessica Stetson, owner of Old Soul Supply Co. in downtown Waterville, unfurls the pine tree version of the Maine state flag she flew at her store Thursday. An adaptation of that “Lone Pine” design is proposed as the new Maine state flag, to be voted on at the upcoming November election. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

“The real telling factor is that if you go to any corner of this state and drive around you’re gonna see the buff flag with the good old pine and Polaris on it much more often than you’re gonna see the blue flag with the state seal on it,” Martucci said.

Jess Stetson, the owner of Waterville-based Old Soul Supply Co., said merchandise with the Lone Pine flag is among the shop’s most popular items. The shop in downtown Waterville sells T-shirts, hats, stickers, patches and, of course, flags of varying sizes with the design on them.

Some of the Lone Pine flags Old Soul sells are adorned with a rainbow design on the end in support of the LGBTQ community. Stetson notes that she has never seen an LGBTQ-inclusive iteration of the Dirigo flag.

“I think it’s a modern design, and people like it,” Stetson said. “The Dirigo flag, I don’t hate it — it just feels dated.”

‘WOKE’ DESIGN OR APPEAL TO HEAVEN?

Some opponents of the Lone Pine flag, however, are calling the design “woke” for its perceived similarities to the flags of communist countries and the removal of the two white men on the state seal, which appears on the current flag.

Taking the seal off the flag is indicative of a broader push by the “woke” left to remove monuments, statues and symbols featuring white men, according to state Rep. Shelley Rudnicki, R-Fairfield. Rudnicki brought that message to a booth at the Clinton Lion’s Agricultural Fair on Sept. 7, where she hung a poster opposing the new flag design along with flags and apparel in support of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

A poster in opposition to changing Maine’s state flag appears alongside “Ultra MAGA” merchandise and a “Let’s Go Brandon” flag behind Fairfield Republican state Rep. Shelley Rudnicki’s booth Sept. 7 at the Clinton Lion’s Agricultural. Dylan Tusinski/Morning Sentinel

The state seal includes intricate drawings of a pine tree and moose inside a shield design flanked by a farmer and sailor standing atop a banner reading “MAINE” and beneath a star reading “DIRIGO,” Maine’s state motto which translates from Latin as “I lead.”

“The new flag erases two white men, the farmer and the sailor,” Rudnicki said. “And if you look at the countries that use the star in the corner, it’s a lot of communist stuff that we don’t want to be associated with. You have to think: ‘Why are they really doing this?’ I don’t want it to look like a communist flag, because a lot of those communist states like China and Somalia — that’s not what we are.”

The current version of the Maine state flag is flown by United State’s Army veteran Geoffrey Spunn at his home in Waterville on Thursday. He opposes a new state flag, saying: “I just don’t think the design conveys the spirit of who we are as Mainers, let alone Americans.” Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

Some, like Waterville resident Geoffrey Spunn, have also noted similarities between the proposed Maine flag and the “Appeal to Heaven” flag, which also features a pine tree on a light background.

The Appeal to Heaven flag originally flew over George Washington’s ships during the Revolutionary War but has since been co-opted by Christian nationalist and white supremacist groups, including many who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Originally, it struck me as the Appeal to Heaven flag rather than the Maine flag,” Spunn said from his Waterville home, where he flies the current Dirigo flag. “There’s nothing wrong with it, I just don’t think the design conveys the spirit of who we are as Mainers, let alone Americans.”

Maine’s current flag, along with many other state flags featuring a state emblem on a blue background, was adopted as a nod to the state’s Civil War veterans, who carried similar blue banners with state iconography into battle.

That symbolism is important to Spunn, who is an Army veteran himself. Spunn said he plans to vote in favor of the Dirigo flag design because of its history.

Many of the Lone Pine’s detractors have also raised concerns about the potential cost of buying new flags for the hundreds of state and local government offices that fly them, as well as the cost for businesses and homeowners who will have to update it themselves.

Others say the design is too simple and doesn’t showcase Maine’s natural beauty as well as the current design. As Rudnicki put it, “The proposed flag looks like a child drew it.”

Supporters of the Lone Pine design say its simplicity is its strength. The North American Vexillological Association, a group dedicated to the study and design of flags that Martucci was previously the president of, lists five principles of good flag design on their website.

Maine’s current flag violates all but one of those rules, Martucci notes. The design has complex drawings, nine colors and text reading “MAINE” beneath the state motto, “DIRIGO” — though its symbolism is undoubtedly meaningful.

Martucci also disputed the notion that the Lone Pine design is “some kind of liberal woke trick” during his Newsroom Live discussion Tuesday and clarified the current flag’s relation to the Civil War.

“This is something that is an important part of our history,” he said. “I know the blue flag has some associations with the Civil War, but that was a federal government mandate in order to contrast (the army’s) flags with the predominantly red flags of the Confederates.”

‘I DON’T MAKE THOSE CONNECTIONS’

To Sean Paulhus, the former state legislator who introduced the most recent Lone Pine flag legislation, the design is apolitical, representing neither a “woke” agenda nor the Christian nationalist movement.

Neither the state shield, its history, nor the two white men on it are being erased, Paulhus notes. Maine’s state seal will remain unchanged regardless of whether the Lone Pine flag is adopted and will still appear in state offices, letterheads and elsewhere.

Adopting the design won’t come with any additional costs for state and local governments, Paulhus said, because the legislation was drafted to only replace the current flags when they’re too tattered to continue flying or when a given office decides to pay for a new flag. A new flag costs less than $100 and is a minor expense that he said can be absorbed into discretionary spending.

“I’ve never seen it as political. We’re trying to restore an original symbol back to use by citizens to show off their pride,” Paulhus said. “I had expected some debate, but I was a little surprised by how strongly the opposition during the debate in the Legislature came out.”

Asked if the Lone Pine design had any communist or socialist design inspiration, Paulhus flatly replied, “No.”

The Lone Pine flag is also entirely unrelated to the “Appeal to Heaven” design or the groups that have appropriated it aside from the flags’ light backgrounds and the tree at their centers, Paulhus said.

Jessica Stetson, owner of Old Soul Supply Co. in downtown Waterville, shelves merchandise showing the pine tree version of the Maine state flag at her shop on Thursday. An adaptation of that design is proposed as the new Maine state flag, to be voted on at the upcoming November election. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

“Our nickname is the Pine Tree State. The blue star represents the North Star. The inspiration is all right there,” he said. “I just don’t understand. I don’t make those connections anywhere.”

The Appeal to Heaven design was created over 125 years before Maine Adjutant General John T. Richards introduced the Lone Pine flag to the Maine Legislature in 1901. It was also used as Massachusetts’ naval flag from 1776 through 1971, Martucci noted, and is still in use today without the text.

Aside from a New England connection and a slight resemblance, both Paulhus and Martucci said the flags’ meanings are entirely separate.

“When people aren’t creative enough to create their own designs, they will often look for a historical flag that they think represents what they’re doing today,” Martucci said.

‘IT’S UP TO THE MAINE PEOPLE’

Mainers appear to be evenly split between the Lone Pine and current designs with the election just over a month away, the first polling on the referendum question shows.

Of 812 likely Maine voters, 40% support the 1901 design and 40% prefer the current flag, according to a Pan Atlantic Research poll released this month. The remaining 20% are undecided.

Maine would become the latest in a series of states to update their flags if voters approve Question 5 in November. Utah and Minnesota both adopted new designs this year, while Mississippi changed its in 2021.

Paulhus, who has pushed several times to change Maine’s flag, is no longer in a legislative role and said he’ll be fine no matter what the outcome of the November referendum is — and he said all Mainers should be, too.

“If the pine tree flag is approved, there’s nothing that says you can’t fly the old design on your porch like you can now — and the same goes if it isn’t approved,” Paulhus said. “At this point, I think it’s up to Maine people to decide.”