Rantings Diversified

This post comes in response to some of my International readers who have mentioned to me that they are amazed that I can write about the US flag code from memory. Ninety percent of the last post I wrote was from memory.
I had to look up a few things. I didn’t know that PA was the only state to celebrate Flag Day and what I wrote is not the entire Flag Code, just some highlights.
What amazes me and has prompted this post is that a few of them have told me they don’t know the words to their National Anthem. Wow! That boggled my mind, for a minute, and then I thought about the state of our public school system. I would bet dollars to navy beans that there are an awful lot of kids out there today who also don’t know the words to The Star Spangled Banner.
I guess I grew up in a different time zone or maybe the twilight zone because as a kid we were taught to respect the flag as a symbol of our country. My parents both served in the military in World War 2. I did not grow up in a household where my parents were militant flag wavers but they did instill in me a respect for it. School started every morning with a prayer and the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. In the Boy Scouts we were taught to respect the flag. In Civics class we were taught the history of the flag, the flag code as well as a respect for it. Do schools even offer Civics class anymore? Probably not.
The U.S. flag was the first secular flag of a nation, ever. It does not represent a monarchy or a religion. It was the first flag of the people. Our National anthem is a song about our flag. It was first designed and put into use at a time when national flags were the ultimate sign of national pride. So, all these years later we still hold to this.
The blue canton was originally meant to be a representation of the National Motto, E Pluribus Unum. Out of the many, one. The arraignment of the stars was meant to represent, “A New Constellation”. For many years our flag was referred to as, “The Grand Luminary”. This worked well until we reached 38 states then it became unworkable so we have the stars aligned on the blue field now. There have been many changes to the canton through the past 231 years as well as lots of derivations used during the Civil War. Our flag has, since its inception, been a symbol of our freedom from tyranny as well as a source of national pride. A few people have said to me that they don’t feel the need to fly their flag because their pride is inside them and quite strong also. To me that’s great to hear because I rarely here people from other countries speak about their national pride.
I fly my flag on the front of my house 24/7 as an outward sign of my pride. I hold it in my heart as everyone else does but I also like seeing it flying on my house. Maybe, just maybe someone else will see it and it’ll motivate them to do the same.
UPDATE:
In August 1999 I was squadded with two guys from the Austrailian National Rifle Team during the National Rifle Championships. One morning we were in the pits for, “Colors”, and as the National anthem started I turned to John H. and asked him, “Would you do me a favor and remove your hat?”. He did so happily. It was no biggie, for him and I appreaciated him doing so. I did not expect him to turn to the flag or hold his hand over his heart or even do much of anything. I really liked the fact he gladly took off his hat as a sign of respect. Anyways we talked a bit about our countries flags and their symbolisms. He told me he thought the Americans attitude towards their flag was great and also said that in the Aussies outback you could find the same attitude. He is a large scale commercial farmer from NSW and told me flys his flag on his farm 24/7.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 17th, 2007 at 13:55 and is filed under Rantings Diversified. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.