So Goes the Flag

“One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, one nation, evermore.” -Oliver Wendell Holmes

On September 11, 2001 the nation saw 3 tired firefighters raise the American flag on a pole that had survived the attack on the Twin Towers. We felt proud as they did what every American wanted to do, to show that we were not defeated, that United States was still standing strong. Our defiant patriotic spirit flowed through us as strongly as it did in 1776 when we stood up and said “no more” to the tyranny the 13 original colonies had suffered. Betsy Ross made us a flag and we flew it proudly.

When the battle of Iwo Jima was won, we raised the American flag to show how far freedom and democracy reached. When man landed on the moon, they planted the American flag to show that our determination and grit got us there before our communist foes of the Soviet Union. And when our team passes the host stand at the Olympic games, we do not dip our flag as other nations do. Our flag stays tall and proud.

But then a strange thing happened. We were told to lower our flags in honor of those that had been lost in the towers. We had lowered them before when we lost a President, Justice or member of Congress. It was a shock to see a lowered flag because you knew something big had happened. After 9/11 we lowered our flags.

We lowered our flags as a response to a terrorist attack. Our symbol of freedom, of strength and independence. On days when flags should have been flying higher than ever to show that we are still here and will not back down, we lowered our flag and have every year since on that day.

Now a lowered flag is commonplace. For every school, mall or workplace shooting, our flag is lowered. For every service man killed in training or an attack overseas, our flag is lowered. It seems our flag spends a lot of time at half-staff. Every President has made proclamations to lower the flag. Our leader, head of the free world, chips away at how other nations see us by lowering our flag on a regular basis, essentially bowing our heads to other countries and the criminal element within our own.

Schools have stopped saying the Pledge of Allegiance because it may offend someone. Some places have stopped flying a flag all together because some people don’t like what they feel it represents as it has been carried into battle on foreign soil. Others stomp on it and set fire to it to show that they hate the country of which it is a symbol. Then they continue to enjoy those same freedoms so hard one by those that fought beneath that very banner. Some people don’t seem to be happy when they see a flag anymore, just angry.

It’s ok. There is a chance that that flag was made in China. The largest Communist country in the world makes the greatest symbol of freedom in the world. Alert Alanis Morrisette – this is ironic. Those that are flying flags may be flying torn or dirty flags. Flags at night without lights or left on their poles during a storm. In these cases there is more old than glory.

Each and every one of us is represented by that flag. Each star is there for a state we live in. Our United States are truly united on that field of blue. The colors of the flag have meaning as well. The red is for hardiness and courage while the white is purity and innocence. And that blue field where we can find each of us is for vigilance, perseverance and justice, exactly what a nation wants from its citizenry.

Our national anthem is from a poem written as a prisoner sat on a ship watching a battle during the War of 1812. He watched the battle at the fort rage on but was thrilled to see the stars and stripes still flew strong and proud, proof that the fort had not fallen. It still waved over the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I am glad it still does today.