Clear, 50° F
Member Services
- help
- contact us
Calendar
* 3 p.m. Nov. 22, First Baptist Church; Featuring the Augusta Conce... More info

* Christmas Made In the South: Free for children 11 and younger; on... More info

- Today's Events
- Full Calendar
Member Services
Advice: Pick up a copy of today's Chronicle to read advice columnist Amy Dickinson's Ask Amy and more.
Buy a copy
Subscribe now!!!

Home   >   News   >   Local (Metro)
Flag Designer1.jpg Ed Jackson (left) and Reid McCallister were instrumental in designing the new Georgia state flag. Mr. Jackson, a flag expert, was often on hand to help lawmakers during the debate.
DOT PAUL/MORRIS NEWS SERVICE

Athens man aided flag design

Web posted Tuesday, May 6, 2003
| Morris News Service

ATHENS, Ga. - Late last month, with only two days left in the state legislative session, Ed Jackson, a University of Georgia expert on flag design, delivered some bad news to the Senate.

ADVERTISEMENT
Have a thought?
Go to the Forums or Chat.
He told the Republican-controlled body that the compromise flag under consideration, featuring the state coat of arms on a blue field in the top left corner and three red-and-white stripes, would be two feet longer than any other flag produced in the United States.

"On a flagpole, it sticks out two feet beyond the U.S. flag," said Mr. Jackson on Monday. "Nobody had ever drawn the flag. No company produces flags that long - it would have been very expensive."

Mr. Jackson said a six-hour debate ensued: Republicans were afraid to pass an amendment that would allow the dimensions of the flag to be altered by the secretary of state.

They worried that if the bill were altered by an amendment, and it went back to the House for approval, the House would let the bill die, Mr. Jackson said.

In the end, the Senate and then the House approved the amendment, and the state of Georgia was saved from having an awkward flag. Nearly two weeks later, Mr. Jackson has finished creating the specifications for the new state flag and is waiting for Gov. Sonny Perdue to sign the bill.

Mr. Jackson, a senior public service associate at UGA's Carl Vinson Institute of Government, focused on the history and design of the state flag while the rest of the population launched heated discussions about its meaning.

He was asked by state Sen. George Hooks, D-Americus, to be on hand for state politicians as they debated the state flag. Secretary of State Cathy Cox asked the Vinson Institute to prepare the official version of the flag - the last step before it is sent to the printing company.

Mr. Jackson described his weeks helping state politicians with various flag designs as "exciting," but admitted that the politics - the secret deals and inside quarreling - was a serious lesson in the way bills are passed.

"It confirms the old saying that if you ever see sausage being made, you never want to eat it again," Mr. Jackson said. "The same applies for the making of laws."

Mr. Jackson, a flag junkie whose office Monday had dozens of flag designs on the floor underneath the desk, faced numerous challenges while designing a flag that would be both historically accurate and aesthetically pleasing.

The state seal that comprises part of the new flag was one such challenge.

The official seal, kept in the secretary of state's office, was last updated in 1914 and has worn so much that the details - such as the soldier and the arch in the coat of arms that comprise part of the seal - are impossible to discern.

So Mr. Jackson did research and discovered that in various replications of the coat of arms over the last 200 years, sometimes the soldier faced left, and sometimes the soldier faced right. Some had a funny hat, some had none.

Mr. Jackson then perused books from the Revolutionary War and settled on a soldier wearing a hat, which seemed historically accurate.

--From the Wednesday, May 7, 2003 printed edition of the Augusta Chronicle



Metro Ads from the Chronicle.
Adoptions
Divorces
DUIs
Lost and Found



Dock Work Material Handler & Permanent Call (706)868-6800 Sort, handle and load freight and unlo...(more)
Coding Medical Records Reviews, verifies coding accuracy, codes, abstracts, and coordinates. Call...(more)
Front Office RECEPTIONIST >$9.75-14.75 | hr< Schedule patients, check- in patients. Call us at ...(more)
Clerical >Office Work< $-25 | hr+ Great Benefits Serves as administrative support to warden. Call...(more)
Blood Work PHLEBOTOMIST $14-19 | hr + Full Benefits Package. Collect & label blood samples. Work for...(more)
Customer Service Reps Customer Service Representative Work with Soldiers. Major military consumer ...(more)




advertisement