American flag a symbol of justice, liberty

[thedrifter]

American flag a symbol of justice, liberty
June 14, 2007 6:00 AM

While it's not an official national holiday, Flag Day was established by a 1949 act of Congress as June 14. Flag Day is meant to honor the adoption of the first flag by the Continental Congress on that same day in 1777.

Today is the 230th anniversary of that event, which we would not be celebrating had the hearty band of resourceful colonists not overcome the much larger British Army and Navy.

It goes without saying that the American flag — which has 50 stars for each of the United States and 13 red and white stripes representing the original 13 colonies — is the most iconic state symbol in the world, most likely in human history. The photograph of U.S. Marines raising the American flag over Iwo Jima during fierce combat against the Japanese in 1945 has become one of the most renowned of modern times.

Abroad, the flag has been reviled, burnt, revered, waved, respected and misunderstood by many. What it represents to Americans is no less complicated. Military veterans and civilians across all political divides are protective of its status as representing our country's history and its promise. We honor the dead and the living by flying the flag in our quest to make this a more perfect union — which is why, to cite a current example, those supporting the war in Iraq and those opposing it can fly the American flag with equal passion and validity.

"Our flag means all that our fathers meant in the Revolutionary War. It means all that the Declaration of Independence meant," wrote Henry Ward Beecher, the 19th century American theologian. "It means justice. It means liberty. It means happiness. Every color means liberty. Every thread means liberty. Every star and stripe means liberty."

Today is a day to appreciate and honor all of what the American flag stands for. It often represents so much more than meets the eye.

— Portsmouth Herald

Ellie

[thedrifter]

You're a grand old flag; you're a high-flyin' flag
Published Thursday June 14 2007
By AMY RIGARD
arigard@beaufortgazette.com
843-986-5537

Memorial Day has come and gone. Independence Day is 20 days away. Both days are known for vivid displays of red, white and blue. Flags fly prominently in front of houses and buildings on Memorial Day to honor those who have lost their lives serving their country. Fireworks displays and flags are a symbol of this country's independence on the Fourth of July.

But there is one day in between these two patriotic holidays that is set aside to honor Old Glory and everything that the American flag symbolizes. Today is Flag Day, a time to celebrate the 230th birthday of Old Glory.

Flag Day, as it is recognized now, was first celebrated on June 14, 1923. That is when the National Flag Code, which became law in 1942, was constructed. Having a day set aside to specifically honor the flag is believed to date to 1885. The Flag Code provides guidelines on how and when the flag should be displayed.

The following information on the correct display and care of the U.S. flag comes from usflag.org:

When flown at half-staff, the flag should first be hoisted to the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff position. The flag should again be raised to the peak before it is lowered for the day.

The union (stars) should be at the peak of the staff unless the flag is at half-staff when the flag is displayed from a staff projecting from a window, balcony or a building.

When it is displayed from the same flagpole with another flag -- of a state, community, society or Scout unit -- the flag of the U.S. must always be

at the top. A church pennant may be flown above the

flag during church services for Navy personnel when conducted by a Naval chaplain on a ship at sea.

When the flag is displayed over a street, it should be hung vertically, with the union to the north or east. If the flag is suspended over a sidewalk, the flag's union should be farthest from the building.

When flown with flags of states, communities or societies on separate flag poles, which are of the same height and in a straight line, the flag of

the United States is always placed in the position of honor -- to its own right. The other flags may be smaller, but none may be larger. No other flag should ever be placed above the flag of the United States. The U.S. flag is always the first flag to be raised and the last to be lowered.

When flown with the national banner of other countries, each flag must be displayed from a separate pole of the same height. Each flag should be the same size. The flags should be raised and lowered simultaneously. The flag of one nation may not be displayed above that of another nation.

When one flag is used with the flag of the United States and the staffs are crossed, the U.S. flag is placed on its own right with its staff in front of the other flag.

When displaying the flag against a wall, vertically or horizontally, the flag's union should be at the top, to the flag's own right and to the observer's left.

When carried in a procession, the flag should be to the right of the marchers. When other flags are carried, the flag of the United States may be centered in front of the others or carried to their right. When the flag passes in a procession, or when it is hoisted or lowered, all should face the flag and salute. The flag should be raised briskly and lowered slowly and ceremoniously.

The flag should be saluted as it is hoisted and lowered. The salute is held until the flag is unsnapped from the halyard or through the last note of music, whichever is the longest.

When the flag is lowered, no part of it should touch the ground or any other object; it should be received by waiting hands and arms. To store the flag, it should be folded neatly and ceremoniously.

The flag should be cleaned and mended when necessary. When a flag is so worn that it is no longer fit, it should be destroyed by burning in a dignified manner.

The flag is to be flown at half-staff in mourning for designated, principal government leaders and upon presidential or gubernatorial order.

When used to cover a casket, the flag should be placed with the union at the head and over the left shoulder. It should not be lowered into the grave.

In bad weather, only all-weather flags should be flown.

Ways the flag should not be used

The flag should never be dipped to any person or thing. It is flown upside down only as a distress signal.

The flag should not be used as a drapery, or for covering a speaker's desk, draping a platform or for any decoration in general. Bunting of blue, white and red stripes is available for these purposes. The blue stripe of the bunting should be on the top.

The flag should never be used for any advertising purpose. It should not be embroidered, printed or otherwise impressed on such articles as cushions, handkerchiefs, napkins, boxes or anything intended to be discarded after temporary use. Advertising signs should not be attached to the staff or halyard.

The flag should not be used as part of a costume or athletic uniform. A flag patch may be used on the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen and members of patriotic organizations.

No mark, insignia, letter, word, number, figure or drawing of any kind should ever be placed on a flag.

The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying or delivering anything.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

June 14, 2007, 7:00 a.m.

Freedom’s Flag
Today and every day.

By James S. Robbins

On June 14, 1777, John Adams introduced a resolution to Congress “that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.” The measure passed unanimously. Word was rushed to Middlebrook Heights, N.J., where General George Washington was encamped with the Continental Army, which coincidentally was exactly two years old that day. The next morning Washington raised a flag that met congressional specifications over his headquarters.

Rather, it seems that Congress followed the general’s specs. The initial design was conceived by Washington a year earlier, based on the Grand Union Flag but replacing the Union Flag in the canton with a blue field with 13 stars. The traditional story has it that Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross made some improvements on his original sketch, such as arranging the stars in a circle, and making them five-pointed, instead of the six-pointed stars Washington had suggested. He believed the six-pointed star was easier to cut from cloth, but Betsy demonstrated she could as easily make one five pointed. Imagine the added difficulty we would face in the Middle East today had Betsy been less dexterous.

This was one story of the flag’s origin. Francis Hopkinson of N.J. is another claimant to the title of flag designer. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, a poet, musician, and bon vivant. In 1780 he wrote a letter seeking compensation for his work, asking for “a Quarter Cask of the public Wine.” A spirited petition. But being a member of Congress he was already on the payroll, so his request was turned down. Of course both accounts may be true — Betsy Ross could well have crafted the prototype flag and Hopkinson may have then drafted the official design based on it, from which other flags were made. History and legend need not always be obliged to duel to the death.

Flag Day has had a fitful history, never quite rising to the level of other holidays, either officially or in the public mind. It is a legal holiday only in Pennsylvania. As a patriotic commemoration it is overshadowed by Independence Day, which is reasonable; July 4 saw the codification of the ideals for which the flag is but the symbol. The notion of a holiday for the flag had waxed and waned in various localities in the 19th century. Credit for Flag Day as we know it usually goes to Bernard J. Cigrand, a 19-year-old school teacher at Stony Hill School in Fredonia Wisconsin. On June 14, 1885, he asked his students to write essays on the meaning and significance of the flag on what he called “Flag Birthday.” In subsequent years he and others campaigned energetically for a national flag-day observance.

President Woodrow Wilson issued the first Flag Day proclamation on June 14, 1916, after leading a “preparedness parade” in Washington, D.C. His speech at the base of the Washington Monument highlighted the dangers of disunity in the country, and the threat of the “hyphenated-Americans,” particularly with Europe at war. The occasion was more than a little political. The Democratic National Convention opened that same day in St. Louis, with incumbent Wilson the only name nominated, and the speakers sounding the same incendiary themes. Wilson’s second Flag Day speech in 1917, after the United States had entered the war against Germany and its allies, had something of an “I told you so” quality.

The holiday was observed intermittently in subsequent decades. One of the stalwarts in promoting flag awareness in the interwar period was Colonel James Alfred Moss, U.S. Army (ret), who founded the United States Flag Association in 1924. Moss, who graduated at the bottom of his West Point class of 1894, was one of the most prolific authors in the Army. His book The Flag of the United States: Its History and Symbolism, and other related titles on the same theme, instructed many generations on proper flag etiquette. The Association also engaged in flag-related activism, such as warning Americans not to buy cheap foreign-made flags. Those made in Japan, for example, were particularly unsuitable because the colors ran when the flag got wet — something we of course know these colors just don’t do.

Flag Day was finally made a national holiday by act of Congress in 1949. But what does the holiday mean? Rather, what is the meaning of the flag? We know its visceral effect, its power as a symbol. The “rally around the flag” effect in times of crisis is more than a slogan. We saw that response after the 9/11 attacks, a proliferation of stars and stripes, as Americans instinctively sought a way to express their solidarity in the face of a foreign threat to our way of life. For a time, Old Glory was omnipresent. Too brief a time.

But the flag is always on hand to inspire, to motivate, to stir our sense of something larger than ourselves. It is an emblem of ideals, and of our history. We fly the flag, we honor it, but not from blind patriotism, not allegiance without reflection. In Wilson’s 1917 speech he observed that the flag “has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours.” We define what the flag means, to the United States, to the rest of the world. The flag absent the ideals of the Founders, lacking citizens who uphold those ideals, has no meaning at all. The active engagement of those ideals, their concrete expression, is what gives the flag its strength. Through our actions, the policies of our government, the way we lead our daily lives, we give the flag its meaning and purpose. The flag is a call to duty, to the country, our communities, ourselves. It is a marker laid down by a people, by a nation, engaged in the greatest experiment in freedom in human history.

Every day is Flag Day.

Ellie