Deliberately Quartered: How Maryland Learns to Live with Its History

There are state flags everywhere, but they are seldom investigated. In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, I focus on Maryland's state flag, a quartered design that seems to be contrasting a lot with itself. The tension was a decision though about a state sense of place and identity. Let's be clear: The Civil War was not a conflict of equal moral standing, and acknowledging division or later reconciliation amongst divided parties is not the same as legitimizing both positions during the conflict. The question today is how a state constructs a shared civic future without pretending the past never happened. Using Communication Theory of Identity (Hecht et al.), I explore how Maryland’s Calvert and Crossland imagery shifted from civic war symbolism to an official state flag in 1904 all the way to today. I examine Maryland's evolution from the diffused early symbols from the 17th and 18th centuries to a flag the retains the original houses in Maryland before independence. Maryland has managed to hold an identity infrastructure that moved history ahead and allowed for a civic future. That's what I'm getting into today on decisions at the fulcrum.  Maryland.gov source: https://sos.maryland.gov/Pages/Services/Flag-History.aspx