The Culpeper Minutemen flag, in the absence of an official town flag, has become the de facto local flag. There are no records of an official town flag at the local library, nor was there any mention of one at city hall, as per the town clerk’s office. In the desert of paper records, the Minutemen standard flies at Yowell Meadow Park where a town flag should be.
This isn’t a problem in a political sense. Maybe someone somewhere has an ax to grind with the Culpeper Minutemen, but I think they played an important role in town history, and I imagine most residents agree. But, unfortunately, the flag looks unappealing.
This is only an opinion, but it coincides with that of the North American Vexillological Association. They have released their guidelines on flag design in a useful handbook, "Good Flag, Bad Flag."
It's not necessarily the gospel on graphic design, but they illustrate certain problems with flags, like the Minutemen flag, that become clear once you think about them.
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Such as the principle of not using text, where the Minutemen standard fails. It makes sense when you think about good iconic flags, like the American flag, which doesn’t need “U.S.A.” plastered all over it to be recognizable. Yet the unofficial flag looks more like a meme rather than an official flag.
Culpeper deserves more dignity, and we should act accordingly to address the flag problem.
Daniel Schmidt
Culpeper