Yesterday The South Dakota Magazine's Facebook page touched the third rail: Change. It started with the first sentence, "South Dakota needs a state flag". OOPS We have one! But that's not important right now!

They posted a photo of a possible alternative flag, created by artist Dick Termes. A proverbial, "run it up the flagpole and see who salutes it" kinda thing. Some have done just that, others have not. I'm caught in the middle. I love the present, it has been our flag since 1963 or so, with the the only change being in 1992, when South Dakota let Florida become the lone "Sunshine State" and we became the "Mount Rushmore State". The flag we have is good enough, and better than most! Do we need to change it? I hope not. I do like the design that was displayed, but the case for change has not been made in my opinion. If it should come to that I'm sure any design will do.

The post sure did stir up a lot of emotions. Some tried to make political hay out of the issue, but there is more to it than that. Change, especially for no reason, is hard for some people. If this story has legs, I'll be walking close behind!

On Monday I plan on posting the 1400th episode of the Jerry Hinkle Program. For this milestone I'm going to dust off the Pollmaster General and have the readers weigh in on the flag issue, I'll see about getting photos of each design and see if we can build some consensus on the need for a new flag!