House Speaker Philip Gunn on Tuesday released a statement following the death of all flag-related bills in the House.

He said he spoke with many representatives and urged them to adopt his law, but apparently the collective group of lawmakers could not come up with a decision on how to best implement a new flag. He said he gave everyone a variety of options, and nobody could agree what was the best.

After posts on social media went viral that he had changed his mind on the flag, he released a statement saying that was not true. Also going viral out of Jackson was The Clarion-Ledger’s post from Sam Hall with a racist drawing submitted to the newspaper when it asked for reader’s ideas for a new state flag. He said the newspaper received a few despicable entries, which was a reminder of why a new flag was needed.

If a new flag is the best route for Mississippi and the legislators can’t agree on the best route to do that, it sounds like it is up to the people to draft another initiative to vote on and make something happen. Oxford is full of artists. Perhaps our residents need to start putting pencil to paper and offering some legitimate ideas for a new flag.