Flag Day

How many people do you know that remembered and honored Flag Day?

Below you will find some very interesting information about both Flag Day and the U.S. Flag, "Old Glory". Much of this information was recently published in The Federalist.

As a tribute to our great flag I will be posting something about the flag and the traditions that go with it each day this week. Check back daily to read further tributes to Old Glory and Flag Day.

Let start first with this great quote:

"I want the people of all the earth to see in the American flag the symbol of a Government which intends no oppression at home and no aggression abroad, which in the spirit of a common brotherhood provides assistance in time of distress." --Calvin Coolidge

Flag Day Reflection

On May 30, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson announced during his Memorial Day address, that June 14th of each year would be celebrated as Flag Day. "This flag, which we honor and under which we serve, is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation," said President Wilson. "It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation.... Though silent, it speaks to us--speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us, and of the records they wrote upon it."

On Flag Day 2004, I urge all American patriots to display and pay homage to our National Flag.

As I look around me 75% of my neighbors proudly display the US Flag (OF course, I live in military family housing on base). Do yours? If they don't maybe you should share this information about the flag with them and encourage them to do so. --SlagleRock

The United States Flag

The flag of the United States is one of the oldest national standards in the world. No records confirm who designed the original "Stars and Stripes," but historians believe Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, probably modified the unofficial Continental flag into the design we now have. General George Washington raised the Continental Army flag in 1776, a red-and-white striped flag which included the British Union Jack where we now have stars.

Several flag designs with 13 stripes were used in 1776 and 1777, until Congress established the official flag on June 14, 1777 -- now observed as Flag Day. The act stated "That the Flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

George Washington explained it this way: "We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty."

The flag was first carried in battle at Brandywine, Pa., in September 1777. It first flew over foreign territory in early 1778, at Nassau, Bahama Islands, where Americans captured a fort from the British.

Posted by SlagleRock at June 14, 2004 09:39 PM