Civic-minded LaFayette teen Joshua Hood has designed a city flag to prove that kids can accomplish anything if they apply themselves.
He and his grandmother are putting the finishing touches on a prototype to present to the LaFayette City Council during its Monday night meeting. Hood said he did not design the flag to garner any recognition, but so that LaFayette residents would have something they could call their own.
“The way I look at it is that LaFayette needed something that the city residents could look at and say ‘Hey, that represents my city and represents me,’” he said.
Some of Hood’s friends told him Mayor Neal Florence and the City Council would ignore him because he was only 16 years old, he said. He is working to prove his peers wrong.
Hood approached the council with his idea in August, he said. The council members were receptive to his plan and encouraged him to continue.
“I decided to do it after I saw that Chickamauga had one,” he said. “I just thought
maybe LaFayette needed one.”
“I got the idea for a three-column design because most of the cities around here have a solid color design,” Hood said. “I thought it would look better because it would be different from other cities’.”
The flag sports orange, black and white to represent the middle and high schools in LaFayette, he said. The center of the flag is emblazoned with the city seal, surrounded by “LaFayette, Ga. 1833,” the year the city became the Walker County seat.
Hood said he became interested in politics and started following President George W. Bush’s career. He also admires Gov. Sonny Perdue and Secretary of State Cathy Cox. He encourages his fellow youths to turn their back on drugs and to work to improve their surroundings.
“I just figured that’s the only way that you can actually work for and do your best for the people,” he said. “Watching him (Bush) through the years that he’s been president and other politicians in the city and the state made me interested in that line of work.”
Hood, a sophomore at LaFayette High School, said he is studying U.S. government this year. He plans to study U.S. history next year. He is also a staff sergeant in the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, or JROTC.
Hood aspires to be a politician and may begin with the LaFayette City Council.
“I guess time will tell,” he said. “That’s one thing that I’ve been interested for the past four years, and I’m hoping to take if further than that if I can.”
