Dyslexia and Decorum

  A lack of the latter was again displayed in what passes for public discourse these days. On a book tour, California Governor Gavin Newsom has mentioned his dyslexia which is covered in his book. President Trump took notice and, with his usual empathy remarked that Newson “said, in a speech, he was dumb, had low Boards, can’t read, has dyslexia, and has a mental disorder — A Cognitive Mess!”
  I should note that Newsom’s response was also a little less than decorous: “Newsom fired back at Trump on the social platform X, saying, “I spoke about my dyslexia.” “I know that’s hard for a brain-dead moron who bombs children and protects pedophiles to understand,” he added.”

This is not the first time the Trump administration has demonstrated a lack of concern for those with dyslexia, among, it must be admitted, a very large number of other groups for which little concern is shown.

Font Fights

    In the Great Reaction and backlash to the somewhat excessive efforts of the DEI folks, there was one you likely missed. It came at the tail-end of last year and involved typeface, which was just typed in a different way and you may not have noticed. For people with various visual disabilities, like dyslexia, the types of typefaces can make a difference.
  Way back in 2023 during the Biden Administration, Secretary of State, Antony Blinken issued a directive that the State Department drop the typeface, Times New Roman and adopt Calibri. Calibri is more accessible it was argued and Blinken said “that Times New Roman “can introduce accessibility issues for individuals with disabilities who use Optical Character Recognition technology or screen readers.”

  On Dec. 9, 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a new directive. Marco’s memo has, as its subject heading: “Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,” Rubio called Calibri “informal” and said it “clashes” with State letterhead. He also criticized it as a “radical” diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiative.” The reaction was immediate.

  On Dec. 10, this response to the Times New Roman directive appeared in The New York Times. Since it is likely you chose not to read this typeface article, given all the other Trump news, much of it is reproduced below, where the issues and arguments are displayed in Arial.

“A Typeface Falls Victim In the Push Against D.E.I.: Secretary of State Marco Rubio Called the Biden-era Move to the Sans Serif Typeface ''wasteful,'' Casting the Return to Times New Roman as Part of a Push to Stamp out Diversity Efforts,” 

 by Mike Crowley and Hamed Aleaziz.
    Secretary of State Marco Rubio waded into the surprisingly fraught politics of typefaces on Tuesday with an order halting the State Department's official use of Calibri, reversing a 2023 Biden-era directive that Mr. Rubio called a ''wasteful'' sop to diversity.
  While mostly framed as a matter of clarity and formality in presentation, Mr. Rubio's directive to all diplomatic posts around the world blamed ''radical'' diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility programs for what he said was a misguided and ineffective switch from the serif typeface Times New Roman to sans serif Calibri in official department paperwork.

   In an ''Action Request'' memo obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Rubio said that switching back to the use of Times New Roman would ''restore decorum and professionalism to the department's written work.'' Calibri is ''informal'' when compared to serif typefaces like Times New Roman, the order said, and ''clashes'' with the department's official letterhead….
  Mr. Rubio's directive, under the subject line ''Return to Tradition: Times New Roman 14-Point Font Required for All Department Paper,'' served as the latest attempt by the Trump administration to stamp out remnants of diversity initiatives across the federal government.

   Then-Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken ordered the 2023 typeface shift on the recommendation of the State Department's office of diversity and inclusion, which Mr. Rubio has since abolished. The change was meant to improve accessibility for readers with disabilities, such as low vision and dyslexia, and people who use assistive technologies, such as screen readers.

   Calibri, sometimes described as soft and modern, is typically considered more accessible for people with reading challenges thanks to its simpler shapes and wider spacing, which make its letters easier to distinguish. Mr. Blinken's move was applauded by accessibility advocates.

   But Mr. Rubio's order rejected the grounds for the switch. The change, he allowed, ''was not among the department's most illegal, immoral, radical or wasteful instances of D.E.I.A.,'' the acronym for diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility. But Mr. Rubio called it a failure by its own standards, saying that ''accessibility-based document remediation cases'' at the department had not declined.

  ''Switching to Calibri achieved nothing except the degradation of the department's official correspondence,'' Mr. Rubio said. He noted that Times New Roman had been the department's official typeface for nearly 20 years until the 2023 change. (Before 2004, the State Department used Courier New.)

  Echoing President Trump's call for classical style in federal architecture, Mr. Rubio's order cited the origins of serif typefaces in Roman antiquity. Those typefaces, which are used by The New York Times, include small strokes at the edges of many characters.

   Admirers say those flourishes make letters look more elegant and make them easier to distinguish from one another, even though they can also create a sense of clutter.

  Serif typefaces are ''generally perceived to connote tradition, formality and ceremony,'' Mr. Rubio's order said, adding that they were used by the White House, Supreme Court and other state and federal government entities, as well as in the script on the side of Air Force One.

   Many diplomats are unhappy with changes Mr. Rubio has made to the department's structure and leadership, and have reported badly damaged morale within their ranks. But the Biden administration's move to Calibri prompted some grumbling from some traditionalists who preferred Times New Roman. Mr. Blinken also changed the standard font size, from 14-point to 15-point, requiring extra keystrokes that some diplomats found annoying.”

   
  A few days later there was this follow-up piece in the Times: “Is Times New Roman Better Than Calibri for the State Department?” by Jonatha Corum, Dec.13. Perhaps this is the most important point in it: “I wonder if it’s all a bit of a distraction from what the State Department is actually doing, rather than the font they’re doing it in,” said Tobias Frere-Jones, a type designer known for Gotham, Interstate and other ubiquitous typefaces. “But it is an opportunity to talk about what makes things legible.” Perhaps the larger question is not which typeface is best, or the rationale for the change, but whether the clever people in the Trump administration deliberately chose Times New Roman to sabotage Newsom's run for the presidency. One would not want to elect a president who could not read the State Department memos. Or, the hugest question might be, to use a word of the kind often employed by the current President, do you think President Trump has ever read a State Department memo?

Sources: I have provided enough for this typeface topic and you can easily find some on your own. I could offer more, but will just give you the one with the best title: "A New Serif in Town: Trump's Font Culture War" by Will Barker in The Week:UK. CANCON Up here in the north things tend to move at a glacial pace, which has been quickening. DEI mantras arrived here fairly fast, but the Great Reaction is just now beginning and only the most extreme DEI demands have started to melt. On the language front, things seem fairly calm. The Government of Canada has enough problems in sending out memos in the two official languages so font issues are probably on the back burners. It is the case, however, that several new languages, which are very old, have been added and typeface traumas may be in the offing. Fonts for some of the Indigenous languages are being developed, particularly in British Columbia, but there are sure to be complaints from settlers who will not be able to find the characters on their keyboards, which sometimes are now required in official documents. There are many examples. The first one below is an "Acknowledgement" and the second a sign.

“This place is the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.”

Citation Justice

 
Or Knowledge Justice Or Epistemic Justice
   I was searching for a book and encountered this screen, where a reasonable question is asked. It is also a good thing to do some re-thinking from time-to-time. I had a quick look at the Open Resource, which led me to a brief consideration of "Citation Justice" and to reading a bit about it. 
   The basic notion seems to be that we need to pay much more attention to the identity of the person behind the citation, than the quality of it. The evaluation of citations should be identity-based, rather than evidence-based. That summary, coming from a guy who has read a bit, should not satisfy you. I will not consider citation politics further, but there is no reason why you shouldn't re-think your research methods. Here are some suggestions.

The Proselytizers

Start with, "Whose Knowledge Counts?... from the Western Libraries. 
  Other Canadian libraries are clearly on-board. A quick search indicated that "Citation Justice" is "hot topic" among librarians.
UBC - Citation Justice
"Citation justice is the process of being intentional about who you cite in your own work to uplift and center gender-diverse, Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, S2LGBTQIA+ folxs."
UVIC - A Critical Look at Citation Practices
"Critical citation or "Citation Justice is the act of citing authors based on identity to uplift marginalized voices with the knowledge that citation is used as a form of power in a patriarchal society based on white supremacy."
McGill - Citation Justice in STEMM
 "Citation justice involves intentionally acknowledging and citing the work of researchers from underrepresented groups. Research indicates that women, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPoC) scholars are cited less frequently than their white, male counterparts (Dworkin et al., 2020; Kozlowski et al, 2022). In science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine, practising citation justice means striving to equalize citation rates between white cis-male authors and those from diverse backgrounds and identities."
University of Toronto - Thinking Critically About Citations
  [This guide from the flagship is the most thorough. If you are only concerned about the justice part see the section - "Considering Your Positionality."]

Some Critics
   It take not take long to determine that some are questioning the emphasis on author identity.

  "The Problem With “Citation Justice”: A Seemingly Noble Ambition Excessively Politicises Scholarship," Freddie Attenborough, The Critic, Aug. 26, 2025

  "America’s Boston University has just introduced a “Citation Justice Pledge”, encouraging students and staff to “commit to intentionally uplifting and centering” the work of “authors who are Black, Indigenous, persons of color, of varied abilities [aren’t we all?], and part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community”. Those who sign the pledge are invited to attend workshops on diversifying reference sources. They also receive branded tote bags and stickers.

   Although presented as voluntary, the pledge has renewed concerns about a shift in higher education towards a form of soft (or not so soft) compulsion. What begins as an effort to do the right thing — in this case, broadening academic reference points — can easily become a de facto political litmus test, displacing genuine scholarship in favour of identity politics."

"When ‘Diverse Citations’ Replace Diverse Ideas," Erin Shaw, Oct. 20,2025, Heterodox Academy

  "Within academia, a new metric of “diversity” may be gaining traction—not in admissions, faculty hiring, or funding, but in the references of research. Nature Reviews Psychology shared their new journal guidelines on “citation diversity statements” in which authors should “draw attention to citation imbalances” among scientists from different demographic backgrounds, and “confirm that they made efforts to cite publications from a diverse group of researchers.” Unfortunately, citation diversity statements reduce scholars to statistics, threaten academic rigor, and add yet another ideologically conformist hoop for academics to jump through."

  It seems to me that there are clearly occasions when the identity of an author matters, but that it is only one variable to be considered. Discernment should be fostered rather than diversity preached.

   I used to work in libraries before they were makerspaces and often noticed the eagerness with which new ideas, resources, etc. were embraced. Also in libraries was the OED, which now may just be provided electronically. In it one will find two words that are useful:

"Neophiliacs"

"Neophiliacs suffer from a collective fantasy which leads them to describe every change as inevitable and an improvement on what preceded it."

Daily Telegraph,1991

"Neophiliacs will want to grok both books."

New York Times 8 October
  According to AI, this is what that sentence means:

"The sentence suggests that people who love novelty (neophiliacs) will want to deeply understand ("grok") the contents of both books, which offer contrasting views on computer jargon."
 [ I suppose determining the identity behind AI will be difficult. In any case "grok" the librarian links and the critical articles, and be sure to vet your citations.]
"Bandwagon"

"We tell the whig leaders, with their four band wagons, their foreign silk flags, and their Giraffes, that the days of humbuggery have gone by."

Ohio Democrat (New Philadelphia, Ohio) 15 September

"When I once became sure of one majority they tumbled over each other to get aboard the band wagon."

T. Roosevelt, Letter 28 April (1951) vol. II. 999

"He has blown with every wind; he has bandwagoned with every passing movement." Eugene (Oregon) Register-Guard 25 April 6/1

"What about the bandwagoners who are prone to jumping on the latest thing without really thinking it through?"

Xtra! West (Vancouver) 15 September 21/2

Demonize, Demean, Divide

   In this new year I plan to focus mostly on old things, but so far have been distracted. As well, I admit that it is easier to start with something, rather than come up with something fresh. The 'something' I discussed yesterday is  "DEI" which I cleverly concealed in my last post that covered some current news. The reason for its concealment was that the post indicated there is some (a lot) of discontent over DEI in the United States, while here in Canada the 'notion' is still fresh and in its ascendancy. It does seem odd to me that something likely to be discarded south of the border, is being so wholeheartedly endorsed north of it. 

   The reason I am bringing DEI up again, and openly, is because of an article I read today which is directly related to the one I mentioned yesterday. In short, diversity, equity and inclusion are generally regarded as ideas and goals that are 'good' ones and they are particularly robust now in Canada. No one wants to question them and it would be unwise to do so in our cold climate. The article now presented suggests that the canning of the ideas and their distribution from DEI departments may need reconsideration.

  "To put it succinctly: Opposing D.E.I., in part or in whole, does not make one racist. We can agree that the legacy of racism requires addressing and yet disagree about how best to do it. Of course in the pure sense, to be opposed to “diversity,” opposed to “equity” and opposed to “inclusion” would fairly be called racism. But it is coy to pretend these dictionary meanings are what D.E.I. refers to in modern practice, which is a more specific philosophy.
   D.E.I. programs today often insist that we alter traditional conceptions of merit, “decenter” whiteness to the point of elevating nonwhiteness as a qualification in itself, conceive of people as groups in balkanized opposition, demand that all faculty members declare fealty to this modus operandi regardless of their field or personal opinions, and harbor a rigidly intolerant attitude toward dissent. The experience last year of Tabia Lee, a Black woman who was fired from supervising the D.E.I. program at De Anza College in California for refusing to adhere to such tenets, is sadly illustrative of the new climate. (Like Ackman, she believes that what he calls the “oppressor/oppressed framework” of D.E.I. contributes to campus antisemitism by defining Jews as “oppressors.” 
   D.E.I. advocates may see their worldview and modus operandi as so wise and just that opposition can only come from racists and the otherwise morally compromised. But this is shortsighted. One can be very committed to the advancement of Black people while also seeing a certain ominous and prosecutorial groupthink in much of what has come to operate under the D.E.I. label. Not to mention an unwitting condescension to Black people."
Source: "Claudine Gay Was Not Driven Out Because She is Black," John McWhorter, New York Times, Jan. 8, 2024

Diversity, Extremism, Exclusion

  The title of this post comes from words found in another article in the New York Times. I will take credit for the ones above in the subtitle. They all indicate that there are problems as does the title of the article: "Universities Are Failing at Inclusion," (David Brooks, Nov. 16, 2023.) In trying to understand why campuses "have become brutalizing ideological war zones," here is some of what Brooks has to say.

   It centers on a hard-edged ideological framework that has been spreading in high school and college, on social media, in diversity training seminars and in popular culture....

   The common ideas associated with this ideology are by now pretty familiar:

 *We shouldn’t emphasize what unites all human beings; we should emphasize what divides us.

*Human relations are power struggles between oppressors and oppressed groups.

*Human communication is limited. A person in one group can never really understand the experience of someone in another group.

*The goal of rising above bigotry is naïve. Bigotry and racism are permanent and indestructible components of American society.

*Seemingly neutral tenets of society — like free speech, academic freedom, academic integrity and the meritocracy — are tools the powerful use to preserve their power.

 The words appearing in the title of this post are found in this passage:

   One upshot is that universities have become battlefields. Eboo Patel is the founder and president of Interfaith America, which over the past 20 years has worked on about 1,200 campuses to narrow toxic divides and build bridges between people of all faiths or no faith. Over these decades, he has concluded that far from creating a healthier, more equitable campus, this ideology demonizes, demeans and divides students. It demeans white people by reducing them to a single category — oppressor. Meanwhile, it demeans, for example, Muslim people of color, like Patel, by reducing them to victims.

 I should add that Mr. Patel doesn't argue that we should try to end DEI. I will also add that Mr. Brooks is generally labelled as a "conservative." Dr. McWhorter is a linguist at Columbia University. He is also a columnist for the NYT and the author of books including, Woke Racism: How a New Religion Has Portrayed Black America.

It shouldn't matter, but I will mention that McWhorter is also BLACK.

Beyond the Palewall (7)

["Beyond the Palewall" is the title of this series because "Beyond the Paywall' is taken. Information for which you are not willing to pay, along with information you may not wish to know, is presented in abbreviated form without charge. What has caught my eye may sometimes feel like a poke in yours and, in that sense, be beyond the pale. Items will appear weekly, or perhaps monthly, or maybe semi-annually, if I can get started and the weather is bleak.]

   Another dreary day as we begin the new year and I have been reading rather than writing. This means I will be copying again rather than creating, but the result for you is higher quality content. The first of the two items relates to the "culture wars", so you may wish to skip to the second which is about Northern Ontario. A slight warning, however, there are also skirmishes up there. 

1. Day of Epiphany
   A note appeared at the top of my screen informing me that today is such a day and when I read two stories about the same subject, I thought that some might be having one, an epiphany, that is. The articles are about the situation at Harvard and the departure of the president, Claudine Gay. The one in the Globe & Mail by Adrian Morrow offers a basic overview and this quotation which suggests the squabble is about larger issues:

“This really isn’t about plagiarism and antisemitism – although those issues are real and they are serious – what’s really going on is a conversation about race and diversity and anger on the right wing against the direction that elite universities have taken,” said Derek Penslar, a history professor and director of Harvard’s Center for Jewish Studies.

Later, one of the consequences of the dispute is noted:

"Billionaire donors held back their contributions. Chief among them was Bill Ackman, who alleged Dr. Gay got her job because of her race. Mr. Ackman and other opponents of DEI said Dr. Gay’s publication record of 11 articles in two decades was too thin for the job she held."

   The article in the National Post, is much longer (two full pages) and it is authored by the Mr. Ackman quoted right above. The large issue to him is DEI and one might conclude from it that perhaps we are witnessing a "Christine Gay Moment", somewhat like the "George Floyd" one. Here is a small portion of what he wrote:

"I came to learn that the root cause of antisemitism at Harvard was an ideology that had been promulgated on campus, an oppressor/oppressed framework, that provided the intellectual bulwark behind the protests, helping to generate anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate speech and harassment.

Then I did more research. The more I learned, the more concerned I became, and the more ignorant I realized I had been about DEI, a powerful movement that has not only pervaded Harvard, but the educational system at large. I came to understand that diversity, equity and inclusion was not what I had naively thought these words meant.

I have always believed that diversity is an important feature of a successful organization, but by diversity I mean diversity in its broadest form: diversity of viewpoints, politics, ethnicity, race, age, religion, experience, socioeconomic background, sexual identity, gender, one’s upbringing and more.

What I learned, however, was that DEI was not about diversity in its purest form, but rather DEI was a political advocacy movement on behalf of certain groups that are deemed oppressed under DEI’s own methodology."

He is a Harvard guy, by the way, and here is his answer to the question he raised, "What should happen?" His answer, in addition to Gay, all members of the Harvard board should also resign.

"The ODEIB should be shut down, and the staff should be terminated. The ODEIB has already taken down much of the ideology and strategies that were on its website when I and others raised concerns about how the office operates and who it does and does not represent. Taking down portions of the website does not address the fundamentally flawed and racist ideology of this office, and calls into further question the ODEIB’s legitimacy. [Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging.]

   Some Canadian readers may be experiencing an "Epiphany Moment" after reading that. Although "DEI" is still being nurtured here and HR departments expanded, the enthusiasm south of here has been replaced by outrage and DEI departments are being dismantled. The Chronicle of Higher Education even created a tool to keep a record of state legislative efforts to restrict or shut down DEI programs and there are many of them. Last month, a legislative proposal was introduced in the House "that would strip colleges of federal funding if they require employees, students or applicants to write diversity, equity and inclusion statements." (At some universities, faculty members and job candidates are required to write diversity statements as part of the promotion or hiring process.)

  Perhaps the most important part of that article is the link to another Ivy League university, the University of Pennsylvania, whose president also was forced to resign. The link is to, "A Vision For a New Future of the University of Pennsylvania", which is a proposed new constitution for that university and it is supported by over 1,700 university faculty. If you go through the list, you will see some names from Canadian universities.

   If one assumes that the fervour in favour of DEI initiatives at Canadian universities subsides and student protests continue, those on the northern campuses might benefit from having a look at Penn's "A Vision For a New Future...". As well, a document written almost 60 years ago at the University of Chicago, "The Kalven Report", is useful. In both, to put it simply, it is suggested that the universities remain neutral and speech free. If you borrow from them, do so carefully. 

2. Ring of Fire
  I will now have to keep this short. If the phrase above rings a bell, it probably was in relationship to a Johnny Cash song, not the area well north of Thunder Bay. That Ring encircles a lot of minerals, the extraction of which is, or may, be problematic. Perhaps not for the Ontario government which "has thrown its weight behind the Ring of Fire, and has committed to paying roughly half of the at least $2-billion that is needed to fund the roads. Premier Doug Ford has even said that he’s willing to “jump on a bulldozer,” if that’s what it will take to get construction underway." There are other Nations up that way, however, and "One big concern raised by environmentalists about development in the Ring of Fire is that pollution may destroy fish habitats in the rivers around Marten Falls, and disturb carbon-storing peat that is ubiquitous in this part of northern Ontario." An added complication: although it was remembered this time to consult with the Nations up there, they disagree about whether the resources should be developed or the Ring of Fire extinguished. All of this information should be read as it originally appears in:
"In Remote Ontario, Marten Falls First Nation Hopes to Move Past More Than 100 Years of Subjugation, As It Opens the Doorr to Critical Minerals Development and an All-Season Road That Will Change Their LIves," Niall McGee, G&M, Dec. 31, 2023. [Some of those among the Neskantaga Nation, don't agree.]

A portion of boreal forest in northern Quebec

   Here is another piece which should be read with the one above. While one often sees articles against old-growth logging out west, those about tree removal north of us are rarer. Now a study from down-under has raised some issues. This article is based on that study:

   "Canada’s Logging Industry Devours Forests Crucial to Fighting Climate Change: A study finds that logging has inflicted severe damage to the vast boreal forests in Ontario and Quebec, two of the country’s main commercial logging regions," Ian Austen and Vjosa Isai, New York Times, Jan. 4, 2024.

"Canada has long promoted itself globally as a model for protecting one of the country’s most vital natural resources: the world’s largest swath of boreal forest, which is crucial to fighting climate change.

But a new study using nearly half a century of data from the provinces of Ontario and Quebec — two of the country’s main commercial logging regions — reveals that harvesting trees has inflicted severe damage on the boreal forest that will be difficult to reverse.

Researchers led by a group from Griffith University in Australia found that since 1976 logging in the two provinces has caused the removal of 35.4 million acres of boreal forest, an area roughly the size of New York State.

While nearly 56 million acres of well-established trees at least a century old remain in the region, logging has shattered this forest, leaving behind a patchwork of isolated stands of trees that has created a landscape less able to support wildlife, according to the study. And it has made the land more susceptible to wildfire, scientists say."

The Study:

   "Assessing the Cumulative Impacts of Forest Management on Forest Age Structure Development and Woodland Caribou Habitat in Boreal Landscapes: A Case Study from Two Canadian Provinces," Brendan Mackey et al.

Land 2024, 13(1), 6; https://doi.org/10.3390/land13010006.

The Bonus:

For information about Canada's "Maple League Universities."

For a Canadian example of perhaps over zealous DEI training.

FLAGS: Don't Fly Them!

    

   I thought I might begin with a softer title rather than the one above and considered, “Let’s Fly the White Flag of Surrender,” but even the colour ‘white’ is controversial these days. There has been both a lot of flaunting and flouting about flags and enough red flags have been raised to let us know that flags now symbolise mainly disunity. They are currently used as a way for signalling values, the way semaphore was developed  for sending messages, but the values being transmitted often differ and are not well received by some who see them. The flag poles have become performative poles and, like statues, flags should be removed. 

   As an admirer of “free speech” (another divisive subject) I will add that I am only calling for their elimination in displays by government entities. As a private citizen you should be able to  fly whatever flag you wish, at your own risk, or if your condo manager permits it,  and you should  even be able to desecrate the flags of others as the Canadian Charter allows. Too much time and effort is devoted to the issue of flag flying and most of the efforts expended by even the most well-meaning and righteous are counterproductive. 

Vexillography is Vexatious

   While there are arguments over flags here in Ontario, proof about the energy spent on flags (not to mention false ones) is found in this article: “This is Utah’s New Flag - and Here’s Why More States are Mulling Designs,” (Washington Post, March 25, 2023), which is where I learned the word, “vexillography” and its variants. There are a lot of vexillologists who care deeply about flags for aesthetic reasons and there are many citizens who do so for political ones. The Utah flag was selected by a committee from 7000 choices and not everyone was happy with the final one. A compromise was made to allow the old flag to be flown over the new one in the Capital and on holidays and still there is a referendum to overturn the new flag law. 

   The legislators in many other states are spending hours debating the designs for new flags for both artistic and ideological  reasons. People, images, colours, etc. now are being removed or changed to make room for ones more acceptable. This is a global phenomena as this headline indicates: “New Zealand Spent $17 Million on a Failed Flag Referendum. Now It Wants Australia to Change Its Flag Instead.” Note the word - “FAILED.”

   Here in Ontario, one community has been shamed because their solution to fly only government flags was unacceptable to some who want to fly their own. Although that does not seem to be an unreasonable arrangement, perhaps it is better just to eliminate them all. Even the government flags are likely to be attacked at some point, just as the statues were. (As this is being written,  other symbolic artefacts are being altered: religious imagery is being removed from the Canadian Crown and replaced with fleur-de-lis for maple leafs and a snowflake; and whether the King’s likeness will be on our bills or the Fathers of Confederation on our passports is being considered.)

   While the number of ardent vexillologists may not increase, the diverse number of people wanting to display their own flags certainly will. To consider just one ‘category’, here are some of the other flags now related to the Pride one, the displaying of which, caused the dispute here in Ontario: PRIDE FLAG - GENDERQUEER FLAG -  GENDERFLUID FLAG -  PROGRESS PRIDE FLAG - LESBIAN PRIDE FLAG - TRANSGENDER PRIDE FLAG - BISEXUAL PRIDE FLAG - PANSEXUAL PRIDE FLAG - INTERSEX PRIDE FLAG. If you don’t believe me, or want to bone up on flag lore before a PRIDE MONTH, see: “”What Do the Colors of the Rainbow Flag Mean? A History of How the Flag Came to Be,” Olivia Munson, USA Today, April 28, 2023 or, “Diverse Gender Identity Flags: Learn the Genderqueer, Nonbinary, Gender Fluid Pride Flags," Clare Mulroy, USA Today, April 28, 2023.

      Patriotism is now mostly personal and civic pride has been replaced by the heraldry of DEI, which seems to have served only to increase divisiveness and exclusion. 

Sources:
   Apart from those provided, there will be one. A search about "flags" generally yields results that relate to controversies over them. I will provide a rather benign example which simply shows how long flag arguments have been raised.