Portland Flag Association Publication 1

Portland Flag Association “Free, and Worth Every Penny!” Issue 33 April 2012

INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Good Flag, Bad Flag

Good Flag, Bad Flag 1 By Ted Kaye Imperial Standards 2 March 2012 Flutterings 4 NAVA’s flag-design guidebook Breton Thanks 6 originated in 1999 after a panel Detroit, Michigan 6 discussion at the 18th Interna- tional Congress of in The Flag Quiz 7 Vancouver, BC. Several PFA Portland Flag Miscellany 8 members attended that event be- 8 Next Meeting Announcement cause of its proximity to Portland.

www.portlandflag.org Since its print publication in 2006, NAVA members have translated Good Flag, Bad Flag into four lan- guages: Spanish (by Gustavo

Tracchia, Argentina), French (by Sophie Rault, Brittany), German (by Dieter Linder, Germany), and Portuguese (by Tiago José Berg, Brazil). All versions are available on the NAVA website. GFBF has supported a large Melissa Meiner, a young graphic number of flag-design efforts; designer in the Portland area, did these translations broaden its the layout work for all versions. reach even farther!

The flag is a flag of liberty of opinion as well as of political liberty.

—Woodrow Wilson If you wish to compliment the interim editor, to contribute in the future, contact Ted Kaye at 503-223-4660 or [email protected]. If you wish to complain, call your mother. 2 Portland Flag Association Publication Imperial – Signa – Vexilla – Imago – Draco Standards

Submitted by Patrick Genna, and a to bear the unit’s condensed and adapted from Vexillum . These standard http://www.legionxxiv.org/ bearers wore mail (hamata) armor signum/ instead of segmentata plate armor and are generally depicted wear- The website above, home to a ing the heads and hides of re-enactor group in Wolves (Lupae), Bears (Ursae), Pennsylvania, has an extensive and in the case of a legion, per- gallery of images of replica mili- haps a (Leo), over their hel- tary equipment, including flags mets and armor. This may have and . The 24th Legion demonstrated the dominance of “defends the Frontiers of An- Rome over the forces of nature. cient Rome in the Mid-Atlantic The New Legion XXIV Vexillum Province of North America”. banner of March 2003.

The word vexillum is for us a These various standards were Western variation used to de- considered sacred objects rep- scribe the modern flag, but it be- resenting the spirit and soul of gan with Rome. the unit. They were decorated with garlands and sacred oils on The Century, Cohort, and Auxil- special days and occasions. iary units of a car- ried several different styles of The honor of carrying these Vexilla (), Signa, and other “Standards” was entrusted to types of “Standards”. veteran legionaries who gener- ally were serving their extended enlistments after 20 years of service.

In Republican times, several icons such as the , Wolf, Bear, Boar, and Minotaur were Commander Marsallas with a Bear (Ursus) pelt over his Gallic-C . carried as the symbols of Re- publican Legions. Consul Marius established the Eagle or In the (fort) or other unit Aquila as the sole symbol of a encampment, the standards of the Roman Legion as part of his Legion and its Units were housed “reforms” of the Roman Mili- in the Shrine or Treasury portion tary in 106 BC. of the Principia (headquarters) building; where they were For a Legion, the Aquilifer bore guarded day and night. The poles the Aquila/Eagle. Each Cen- for the various standards would tury and Cohort unit would have a butt spike to allow them to have a Signifer to carry its Signum be stuck in the ground and many Leg XXIV Vexillum Top.

Portland Flag Association Publication 3 had a handle or

“grab” to ex- tract them from the ground and to carry them more easily while on the march.

Hand grab Each Imperial Legion would also have an Imago, carried on a staff at the head of the Legion by a Imaginifer. The Imago was a Legion XXIV’s Draco Standard shows off in a stiff autumn breeze at the three-dimensional metal portrait Historic Soldier Event in Burlington, New Jersey, October, 2007. representation of the Emperor speed” could create a hissing, then in power, or the Emperor Auxiliary units within the Le- whistling, or droning sound. The who had “raised” the Legion. gion. These astrological icons such as a bull, ram, or goat were Draco was carried by the Dracon- Astrological images would some- carried on a separate pole stan- arius rider of a cavalry unit. times be carried as well by the dard or were mounted on other Draco standards were also used various Cohorts, Centuries, or standards such in cavalry Gymnasia (games), such as the Signum. as the Hypakka where points were They generally scored for strikes (by dummy represented the javelins thrown by team of period of the “Aggressor” riders) on the tail- Zodiac under piece of the Draco standards car- which the unit ried by the Draco team acting as had been “targets”. formed. Some icons could also refer back to Legion XXIV’s tribal origins. Bull Imago

Draco Standards were adopted during the Late Empire, 250-400 AD, and were generally carried by cavalry units. The hollow head, in the form of a toothed or snake head, was formed from metal and when carried by a rider at a gallop, the wind passing through it would extend a cloth An Imago of Legion XXIV represent- ing no particular emperor or deity, tube tail attached to the neck of constructed in 2006 by Joe & Thomas the head. The air stream passing Perz, assigned to the Legion's Mid- through a Draco head carried “at The Signa of Legion XXIV (Pa.) West “Vexillation”. and Legion XX (Md.). 4 Portland Flag Association Publication March 2012 Flutterings You Need to Know In our March meeting, hosted on quilts he’d recently acquired, generously by David Ferriday in showing many examples of quilts his studio in Northwest Portland, throughout the past 200+ years we enjoyed an unusually intellec- which used the American flag as a tual discussion of flags and related design element—sometimes in- topics. corporating real flags into their construction. Our host welcomed us with a dis- play of his recently-designed “Flag Max Liberman led an animated for All Mankind in the 21st Cen- discussion of a blog written by tury”, on a flagstaff at the entry to New Zealander Josh Parsons, en- United Russia (Putin’s Party) his studio, waving in a breeze cre- titled “The World’s Flags Given ated by a fan. Letter Grades”: http:// Patrick Genna commented on the www.otago.ac.nz/philosophy/ recent Russian presidential elec- We began by welcoming member Staff/JoshParsons/flags/ tion, attributing the success of David Anchel, the genial new intro.html. Vladimir Putin and his United owner of Elmer’s Flag & Banner, Russia party to the fractured na- and in his honor introduced our- Parsons is a lecturer in the Faculty ture of the opposition, repre- selves in more detail than usual. of Philosophy at Oxford Univer- sented by the large number of We went beyond the normal “how sity, and has created a system to political party flags in Russia (see I got interested in flags” and “grade” national flags with A, B, Patrick’s article on pp. 2–3 of the extended into our work and C, or D (as if he were grading a previous issue). personal backgrounds. student’s paper) based on meth- (Continued on page 5) odology reflecting his personal David Ferriday then started our preferences on flag design. discussion with a shout-out to Unlike the principles in NAVA’s commercial use of the U.S. flag, in Good Flag, Bad Flag , which com- this case a shopping bag from bined the work of 20 writers on Elmer’s. He then shared a book vexillography and have been vali- dated by NAVA’s massive surveys of state/provincial and city flags, Parson’s criteria are unilaterally defined. Among them: no writ- ing, no maps, no realistic images, and no tricolors—except in Europe. He also dislikes “colonial nonsense”, , “bad colors”, and “too many stars”.

Max is considering creating a web-based opportunity for many people to rate national flags using John Caskey’s new book, published Host David Ferriday shows a U.S. the same structure as the NAVA by the Fairmount Memorial Associa- flag-themed shopping bag from surveys. tion of Spokane, Washington. Elmer’s Flag & Banner. ISBN: 978-1-4507-6549-7

Portland Flag Association Publication 5 proceedings of the 24th Interna- tional Congress of Vexillology (2011) available for print-on- demand, via Lulu.com, and the CD of the proceedings was going to press the next week. All NAVA members will get a copy of the CD. Canadian City Flags, with 10 researchers and three re- viewers, is through its first draft and should appear as Raven 18 later this year. And NAVA News 213 had just gone to the printer.

He also showed a new book by NAVA member John McCaskey: 100 Historic American Flags.

Scott Mainwaring brought up the recent controversy over the depic- tion of an Indian (Native Ameri- can) on the Massachusetts flag, which led to an extensive discus- Newly-retired Mike Hale highlights the jersey worn by the world’s current sion of the use of ethnic groups as bicycle racing champion, on the cover of Cycle Sport magazine. mascots for sports teams and as (Continued from page 4) flags and state flags. images on flags. He shared two “quizzes”, asking Scott also shared a recent NAVA us to identify the common themes Mike Hale, who is interested in bicycle racing, brought a cycling Facebook discussion relating to in two groups of flags. One group the city flag of Detroit, Michigan, appears as the Quiz on page 7. magazine and described the tradi- tion of champions at various lev- and how it might be improved Michael Orelove brought his col- els wearing jerseys bearing some (see page 6). lection of 50 used U.S. state flags, representation of flags. He noted acquired when volunteering for that national teams used jerseys Juneau, Alaska’s flag-display ef- with stripes in their flag’s colors. fort. He posed PFA members However, as the U.S. teams had with the flag of their native state, been inconsistent in their place- after challenging them to describe ment of stars (at the top, in the the flag in detail from memory— middle, etc.), the governing au- accomplished more successfully thority had felt it necessary to tell by some than by others. the Americans how to display their flag image on their jerseys. He also outlined a project he’s spearheading with Boy Scouts in Ted Kaye talked about his recent Corbett to explore flag-folding heavy involvement in NAVA traditions on various sizes of U.S. publishing. He had just made the David Ferriday displays his “Flag for All Mankind in the 21st Century”. 6 Portland Flag Association Publication Breton Thanks

Alain Raullet, president of the Breton Flag Society, graciously sent us a dozen Brittany flag post- ers to share with PFA members. In return, we sent him a package of items including a large former flag of Zaire, a pair of stars-and- stripes suspenders (from one of Michael Orelove’s time-capsule boxes), and a “United Nations Flag Stickers” book. Upon re- ceiving them, he wrote:

To the Portland Flag Association— Thank you very much for the Zaïre flag. I deeply appreciate too the US suspenders, though I have no trousers with buttons at the moment. And thanks, too, for the scholastic book! —Alain

Detroit, Michigan

Scot Mainwaring and Patrick Genna have been engaged in an active forum discussion of the design of the flag of Detroit (French for strait ) and how it might be im- proved. Patrick feels such efforts should always start with the existing flag; Scott would start over.

Alternative designs for the flag of Detroit, Michigan. Each simplifies the current flag while retaining its heraldic elements. Concept: Patrick Genna, artwork: Detriot, Michigan. Michael Rudolf, of Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania.

Portland Flag Association Publication 7 What’s that Flag? What Was that Flag? Answers to the last quiz

By Patrick Genna

These flags have a common theme. What is that theme, and what does each flag represent?

Anglican Church of Canada

Falun Gong

Jainism

Sikhism

Orthodox Church in Japan

All of these flags, of course, are flags of religions or religious

groups. Church in Wales 8 Portland Flag Association Publication Portland Flag Miscellany Ken Ray reports that on the weekend of September 11 an event in Salem’s Riverfront Park displayed thousands of flags. Similar events occurred across the country on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

“Heroes ”. The “Never Forget” flag.

The stripes on the Flag of Honor are composed entirely of names of those lost on 9/11/2001.

Vexillum: In ancient Rome, a square flag, or standard, carried by troops or legions. A company of soldiers serving under one standard. [Early 18th century. < Latin, “flag, banner” < vex-, a stem of vehere "carry"] Michael Orelove, in uniform—in person and as drawn by his grand-daughter.

May Meeting The next meeting of the Portland Flag Association will be at 7 p.m., Thursday, May 10, 2012, at Mary’s Woods, the retirement village of John Schilke, 17400 Holy Names Drive, Lake Oswego. See the map.

We look forward to seeing those of you who have missed recent meet- ings, and hear some new war sto- ries, see some different flags, and engage in provocative discussion. Enter the DUROCHER parking lot. The number (17440) is over If you can’t get to the meeting, per- the entrance area of the apartment building. Park in an empty (free) haps you can give the editor some- space with a BLUE FLAG in the parking area. If nobody’s at the thing to share with our readers. door, call John’s cell phone – 503-459-1213.