Old Glory – The Flag

By Robert E. Freer, Jr., President of The Free Enterprise Foundation

Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation. (Journals, Cont. Cong. June 14, 1777)

Our Country’s flag has gone through 26 changes since Congress first adopted its basic design. Even with its growing constellation of stars and its stripes coming to rest at 13, through all 27 flags, it has always been recognizable as our flag. Its history is rich with the striving of a free people forming a new nation built on freedom and the sacrifice of peoples from all over the world who have overcome the most unimaginable hardships just to make it to our shores. The progeny of those tough, resilient people know the agony of their striving and the truth that freedom isn’t free. It is now part of our national DNA. The flag of The United States of America, our flag, is the symbol of that sacrifice.

In the tales of our country’s founding, its westward expansion to the Pacific and beyond, our flag has led the way. It has been there in struggle, loss and triumph. It has seen it all. It is today the most recognized symbol of any nation in the world and has penetrated into the consciousness of the most remote villagers in far off lands. It has come to stand for tenacity of purpose, strength, opposition to tyranny, liberty of thought and expression and democratic process. The flag is a symbol as well of American generosity and our helping hand for the world’s downtrodden. The flag most of all has come to symbolize a people united by individual freedom and the aspiration to keep it that way.

It is a tough old flag that has known abuse and yet is raised the next morning with pride in thousands of communities across this land. It is a soft blanket to honor our heroic fallen warriors. It can bring tears to the eyes of the most hardened, and a smile to the face of the five year old reciting its already remembered pledge. It can bring steel to a Marine’s spine and joy to the returned traveler. Wherever there is our flag, there is hope that freedom will prevail.

It is fitting that we honor the flag annually on the anniversary of its adoption, but we were slow to do so officially. Congress in 1877 adopted a resolution asking that it be flown and specially honored on June 14 of that year, but that was a one time Centennial event. One celebrant of that event was a Milwaukee schoolteacher, B.J. Cigrand, who felt that it should be an annual event. In 1885 he organized appropriate ceremonies for the pupils in Fredonia Wisconsin Public School District 6 as “Flag Birthday.” He followed that up with numerous magazine and newspaper articles as well as speeches.

The idea for an annual day of honor for our flag spread to New York. A kindergarten teacher there in 1889 organized events that spread throughout the state. From there, the idea for a celebration reached Philadelphia and the Betsy Ross House in 1891. In 1893, The Philadelphia Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution added their voices to the call.

By proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson, Flag Day was recognized as an annual event starting in 1916, but it wasn’t until August of 1949 that President Truman was able to sign an act of Congress designating June 14th of each year as National Flag Day.

The flag is US! It represents both the events and the emotions evoked throughout the years of its existence. Franklin D. Lane, Secretary of the interior in 1914 repeated what the flag itself had “told him” that morning, “I am what you make of me; nothing more. I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself.” Years later, Johnny Cash would sing to that “Ragged Old Flag” and after reciting its various victorious trials he ends in the following stanzas:

“The Native Americans, The Black, yellow, and white All shed red blood for the Stars and Stripes. And here in her own good land, She's been abused, burned, dishonored, denied and refused, And the very government for which it stands has been scandalized through out the land. She's getting thread bare, and she's wearing kinda thin, But she's in pretty good shape, for the shape she's in. Cause she's been through the fire before and she can take a whole lot more. So we raise her up every morning And we bring her down slow every night, We don't let her touch the ground, And we fold her up right. On second thought I do like to brag Cause I'm mighty proud of “That Ragged Old Flag” Join me and your neighbors in paying respect to our flag this 14th of June. And in the future when you come upon it being raised or lowered, if you possibly can, stop, think about what it signifies and salute that ragged old flag, because it represents the best the world can be. It represents us, the people of The United States of America! Copyright © 2007 by Robert E. Freer, Jr. All rights reserved

About the author: Robert E. Freer, Jr. is President of The Free Enterprise Foundation. He is a Visiting Professor, at The Citadel and elected in 2005 to be their first John S. Grinalds Leader in Residence. A regular contributor to the Mercury, He can be reached by E-mail at The Citadel . Copies of his earlier columns can be found The Free Enterprise Foundation.

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