OT: Flag Day in the U.S.A.

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Today is Flag Day in the United States of America.

 

http://www.usflag.org/history/flagday.html

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_Day

 

As one can see from the wikipedia link above .. many, many other

countries have their Flag Days .. today is America's .. tomorrow is

Denmark's.

 

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A Grand Old Flag

June 14th, 2006

 

It was the first day at the Battle of Gettysburg and things were not

going well for Abe Lincoln’s boys in blue. Robert E. Lee’s Johnny Rebs

had arrived on the battlefield almost behind General Oliver Otis

Howard’s 11th Corps which panicked the " Dutchmen " and sent them flying

towards the town of Gettysburg.

 

This left General John Reynold’s 1st Corps all alone to face most of the

Confederate Army. Surrounded on three sides, the " Black Hats " were

taking a terrible beating. In the 143rd Pennsylvania, the color bearer,

Sergeant Benjamin Crippin stood in full view of the enemy, waving the

flag vigorously, trying to rally the troops to hold their ground and

keep fighting.

 

But the inexorable logic of superior numbers ground down Reynold’s men

and eventually, they too broke and ran. As they retreated, Sergeant

Crippin, still carrying the flag which now featured 23 bullet holes

shredding the precious fabric, turned toward the enemy and in an act of

defiance memorialized in legend and statue, shook his fist at the

oncoming Rebels, daring his foes to take the flag from him. It is

reported he did this several times, even eliciting sympathy from General

Ambrose Hill when his troops, enraged at the taunting figure, shot him

down in a hail of bullets.

 

There was no more deadly job in the Union Army than color bearer – and

none more honored. Carrying the flag into battle made one an instant

target, the enemy believing quite correctly that killing the color

bearer would sap the will to fight in their opponents. It became a point

of honor for a regiment that if the standard bearer fell, another would

immediately pick the fallen flag off the ground and take his place.

There was a reverence for the flag then, a feeling of personal

responsibility for upholding what it represented. It was a tangible way

for these men to express something inexpressible that lived in their

breasts and enabled them to march into almost certain death and remain

while their comrades fell around them. The flag gave them courage while

reminding them of what they were fighting for.

 

What is it about the flag that brings to the surface such overpowering

emotion and devotion? Grown men weep at its passing. And thank God there

are still men and women willing to die protecting what it represents.

But as a symbol, why does it take up such a large corner of our hearts?

 

There are so few things that actually unite Americans in a traditional

sense that make us a nation. Other countries have hundreds even

thousands of years of cultural touchstones and myth that are almost hard

wired into their brains to make them a " nation. " The United States on

the other hand, is too young for myth making. Instant legends like Davey

Crockett or George Custer exist alongside their more unattractive and

definitely human historical selves, taking the luster off some of their

accomplishments. And other symbols of nationhood found elsewhere like

castles or palaces or ancient battlefields are absent here.

 

For Americans, it is in the flag that we infuse all of our feelings of

love and respect for country, for home, for each other. Each of us are

reminded of something different as the flag passes. This is what makes

it a personal icon, a talisman to be touched and stroked so that the

longing in our hearts to belong to something greater than ourselves is

fulfilled. The flag is home. And no matter where home might be, we, the

most mobile of modern societies, carrying that feeling of home with us

in our travels, see the flag as an anchor, a permanent standard

representing all the good and decent things in ourselves and our country.

 

We may be the only nation whose national anthem is actually an ode to a

flag. We are all familiar with the story of how Francis Scott Key ended

up writing " The Star Spangled Banner, " a poem to commemorate the

overpowering emotion he felt upon seeing the flag still flying after a

night of horrific bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British during the

War of 1812. And we are all too familiar with the first verse of Key’s

poem, sung ad nauseum at every opportunity imaginable so that the very

moving and heartfelt words are mouthed unconsciously, and the anthem

itself butchered into unrecognizabilty by pop stars and celebrities.

 

Almost never heard are the anthem’s three other verses, extraordinarily

descriptive stanzas of the relief and pride felt by the author upon

seeing that huge 42’ by 30’ flag waving in the " dawn’s early light. " In

the final stanza, Key captures in a few short lines of poetry all the

patriotic devotion that many of us feel when we see the flag pass:

 

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

 

Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation,

 

Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n – rescued land

 

Praise the Pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation.

 

Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,

 

And this be our motto— " In God is our trust. "

 

And the Star-Spangled Nanner in triumph doth wave

 

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave

 

Today is Flag Day. I think it fitting that Americans honor not only our

flag but also the " free men " who " stand between their loved homes and

the war’s desolation " around the world, protecting us and reminding us

all what the flag truly means – simple, patriotic love for one’s home

and country .

 

This love, shared by tens of millions of Americans, has lately been

belittled, sneered at, even thought of as " evil " in some quarters. The

flag itself has taken something of a beating in recent decades, used and

abused by both commercial enterprises and thoughtless dissidents who

shamelessly appropriate the feelings Americans have for our national

emblem to sell everything from soap to cars. Or, in the case of the

haters of liberty, to deliberately incite rage by burning it. There are

even some who wish to supplant the nobility of what the flag represents

by injecting all the sins (both real and imagined) committed by American

governments over two hundred years into our national symbol in order to

mold it into an emblem of shame.

 

In this, they and all the haters will fail. As long as there are men

willing to pick up the standard when it falls, the flag will continue to

represent all of the good and noble things about this country, forcing

us to wipe a tear from our eye whenever we see it pass, remembering all

that it means to be an American.

 

Please fly a flag today to honor both the emblem itself and all those

who have served it in the past and continue to serve it today.

 

By .. Rick Moran