“Observations”©

Donald S. Conkey

Date: June 11, 2009 - # 9924a – Thank God for America’s Flag of Freedom (830)

While not a national holiday Sunday June 14 is still a very special day for Americans – it is National Flag Day – a day when Americans honor their country’s flag, the Stars and Stripes, the symbol of freedom to the world for over 200 years. However with many political and moral issues seriously dividing Americans today the flag is perhaps the only symbol left that retains any semblance of unity for many Americans.

       A few historians believe the story of how our first flag was designed, then sown together by Betsy Ross, with its 13 stars and 13 stripes, seven red, six white, is only a legend. Whether it is legend or fact is immaterial, our flag is still very symbolic. The original stars and stripes each represented one of the 13 states who banded together to fight for their independence and freedom. And it is the story we were taught as children when we studied where “Old Glory” came from. America’s new flag was first flown on July 8, 1776, the day the founders gathered to sign the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.

       As I ponder this historical occasion I often ponder just how hard it must have been for those 56 men, representing 13 very independent states, to come together and put aside the self-interests of their own state and join together with 12 other states for the mutual protection of one another. Yes they would have challenges in their future: winning an “unwinnable war,” creating governing articles, then rewrite them when they, the Articles of Confederation, failed. Their failure led to the creation of America’s unique constitution of freedom.  

       Few today comprehend just how difficult this would have been for those 56 men. Similar groups of men have tried to unite the countries of Central and South America but were unsuccessful because the political leaders were never willing to yield their power. A similar attempt to unite Europe into a common union recently failed because the people in two of the countries rejected it. Can any of us imagine what it would be like if all 50 states that now constitute the United States were still separate and independent states?

       Without question the Stars and Stripes, the flag of the United States of America, is known world wide. Our nation’s military has carried it into battle around the world: up the hills of San Juan in Cuba, onto the shores of Montezuma, and they raised it on the bloody hills of Iwo Jima, and it is carried into battle today in America’s ongoing fight against terrorism by brave men and women who are still willing to fight, and die, to retain the unalienable freedoms that flow from America’s foundational documents of freedom.

       Americans feel a strong pride in their “Old Glory.” It is their symbol of freedom, just as it is a symbol of freedom, or has been, to the entire world. This pride is felt whether we see it being posted at an event such as this year’s Woodstock Memorial Day tribute to veterans, watch it pass in a parade or see it being raised at sporting events where we stand, place our hand over our heart and reverently sing America’s national anthem.

       On Sunday, when “you post your own Old Glory at home,” ponder its history and what it has meant to Americans since 1776. Then remember how that flag inspired Francis Scott Key, when he saw it still flying over Ft McHenry in September 1814, to write “Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming, Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof that our flag was still there. Oh say, does that Star - Spangled Banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave? . . .” And recognizing God’s hand in that turning-point battle, Keys was inspired to write into the third verse: “Praise the pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation! . . . And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’” Inspiring words, seldom sung, but powerfully remind Americans of their nation’s Godly heritage.

       Our flag is the one symbol all American’s unit around regardless of how divided they may be along political or religious ideology. Among the heirlooms our family cherishes is a “flag blanket.” It has nine different flags and the Pledge of Allegiance woven into it, including the words “One Nation Under God, Indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.” Profound words to ponder.

       As “Old Glory” is unfurled at your home on Sunday ponder once again on just how much the Stars and Stripes means to you and to the freedoms it represents in your life. Then thank God for America’s “Flag of Freedom.”