Dear Editor,

A few weeks ago, the of us, long retired senior citizens, watched as Britain paid homage to Queen Elizabeth.

We remembered the days when we sang the

Rule Britannia songs and frantically waved the Union Jack as we lined the sun-drenched sidewalks of the city to welcome white officials bedecked in starched royal demeanour. Nothing seemed to have changed there, for thousands of loyal citizens lined the century-old walkways, waved the red, white and blue flags of stability, prayed to the God of the angry waves of change to save their gracious queen.

The ‘Union Jack’ of England, the ‘Stars & Stripes’ of the United States of America, the ‘Rising Sun’ of Japan are three of the many flags that have not changed colour nor dimensions but remained symbolic of a stability laid down by ‘forefathers’.

Excuse me, please. Where is our Black, Green, and Gold flag designed by our forefathers? Who changed the flag that was hoisted at the National Stadium Independence night? We groan to see the many designs and colours in what is Jamaica’s flag. Victorious athletes can wrap themselves in dark grey/aquamarine/sea-green, bottle-green, grass-green/ yellow, canary-yellow, buttercup-yellow flags as they lap world tracks.

Schoolchildren wave flags in various designs and colours. That’s not good enough for our nation. Don’t let ‘any and anybody’ come here and redesign and change up our flag. We want to see the original flag, made in Jamaica, with its fixed design in the exact colours. Black, Green, Gold and the other symbols of stability will fall into place and our children and grandchildren will learn and respect the meaning of simple words like stability, heritage and forefathers.

Please give us back our original flag.

Veronica Blake Carnegie

veronica_carnegie cwjamaica.com