Will the city of Madison get a new flag? The city has been on the hunt for a new design since the Zia Pueblo tribe in New Mexico objected to the current design. The object in the middle of the flag is supposed to represent the Capitol, but it looks like the tribe’s ancient sun symbol. That, in Madison-land, is the sin of “cultural appropriation.”
Since Madison is oh-so politically correct, they couldn’t just tell the Zia Pueblo to go pound sand even though the tribe was wrong about their symbol being used. So the Madison-based Wisconsin State Journal, culturally appropriating Stockholm syndrome, decided to hold a contest to replace the city’s flag.
Sadly, not only was our entry not the winner, it wasn’t even considered.
The sickles come together to form an “M” for Madison. The hammer and sickles are symbolic of industry and agriculture, respectively. The star represents Madison as the capital of Wisconsin. Red, of course, is the traditional color of Wisconsin and UW-Madison. The gold color represents prosperity.
Perhaps there was a form that we missed, but we did post it on Twitter and Facebook. But as disappointed as we were, we have to admit there was something about the winning entry we liked:
There’s something familiar about it. At first we couldn’t quite put our finger on it. It was familiar, yet we couldn’t remember where we saw it before.
And then it hit us:
Of course, the national flag of Cuba. How appropriate. Even better, we’re betting the current mayor of Madison, Paul Soglin, is very familiar with the Cuban flag from his visit with Fidel Castro in 1975.
So we would like to congratulate the People’s Republic of Madison and its revolutionary spirit on the new flag. Viva Commandante Soglin! Viva la revolución! Death to the Imperialist Yankees!