Celebrating Old Glory – Today Is Flag Day
The year was 1777, it was a warm June day in the newly created United States of America. The founding fathers of this great nation saw fit to honor our country with a symbol. That symbol would be a flag that featured the colors of red, white, and blue.
108 years later a school teacher in Wisconsin started the tradition of honoring our flag on the anniversary of The Flag Resolution of 1777. They would call it Flag Birthday. It wasn't until August 3rd of 1949 that President Harry Truman officially signed the Act of Congress that made June 14th Flag Day across our great nation.
Why were the colors of red, white, and blue were chosen to be on our flag to represent we the people? This excerpt from the website USFlag.org explains it quite nicely.
The colors of the pales (the vertical stripes) are those used in the flag of the United States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valour, and Blue, the color of the Chief (the broad band above the stripes) signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice.
For many around the world, the symbol of our nation has come to mean hope. A hope of a new beginning, an end of tyranny, a taste of freedom. Here in our own country sometimes this amazing symbol is not as genuinely revered. I don't think that it's because of malice, I think it's more because of ignorance in the question of how to properly respect The American Flag.
I can only imagine what the site of the American Flag might mean to a soldier coming home from conflict. I know what it meant to me as simply a traveler returning from a foreign land.
To me, it was the symbol of home. The symbol of what I believe to be right and true. The symbol that all men are created equal and deserve the right to pursue their own happiness. If you've ever traveled outside America you quickly learn that not every citizen of this planet is guaranteed these rights.
If you have a flag at your home, I hope you will display it today. If not I hope you will take a moment and explain to your children why this symbol is so important to who you are and who they might be. Let's take a moment today to honor America and fly the flag proudly.
Sure it might sound hokey but the feelings, emotions, and words of this piece from John Wayne still ring true today.