Morano questions Micah on flag meaning and symbolism
Morano asks Micah why a flag matters and about potentially controversial symbolism. Micah explains the flag's allegorical content: Henry Hudson's ship the Half Moon, indigenous people greeting him, a figure representing the city with a downward-pointing sword indicating peace, and turtle doves that mate for life on the shield.
I have one question for Mr.
Micah on the flag and then one question for the community board panel.
Mr.
Micah, one, thank you not only for being here today and spending hours here and waiting to testify and give some of the perspective and the history of the flag.
I have a two-part question.
One is...
What does it matter what flag a borough has?
Staten Islanders still have to pay the same taxes.
They still have to deal with the same problems with cost of living and crime and sanitation and everything.
Who cares what kind of flag that we have?
And second, a lot of my colleagues in the council, because of concerns about how things used to be in the 17th century, 18th century, 19th century,
18th century and evolving trends of treatment of American Indian groups, for instance, and numerous other groups that were formerly mistreated by European colonial settlers.
They wonder what actually is in this flag and is there somebody or something in this flag that might be controversial.
I'm wondering if you can actually explain some of the symbolism, some of the images in the flag itself so my colleagues know what they're voting on.
Sure.
We liked very much the original seal for its allegorical content.
And that is to say, Henry Hudson came into the Narrows in 1609.
So his ship, the Half Moon, is portrayed there.
He was greeted by indigenous people.
Staten Islanders.
It wasn't Staten Island yet, but they were farmers and fishermen who greeted him.
This figure, again, an allegorical figure, represents the city.
Her sword is pointed down, indicating peace.
Her shield contains two turtle doves who mate for life.
So we thought there was great value in the imagery.
It just needed to be brought into contemporary feeling.
And so that...
And to what you asked for, I've been privileged to work as an art director and graphic designer all my life, most recently for the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
It has always been my goal in doing my work to communicate ideas.
And for Staten Island to be proud of a flag that represents us, I think, has value.
And so if we can bring it up to a level that somebody can look at and say, yeah, I feel good about that, then I think that was the purpose.