A symbol of ourselves
Published 3:50 pm Thursday, June 13, 2013
Today isn’t Independence Day. It is not Veterans Day or Memorial Day.
On those holidays, we fly the flag to celebrate freedom, to honor those who have served, and to venerate those who died in service.
But on Flag Day, we honor the flag itself — a rectangle of cloth, vividly red, white and blue, recognized ‘round the world.
The Stars and Stripes was adopted as the U.S. flag on June 14, 1777, and commemorations of the flag’s “birthday” gained popularity in the 1880s and 1890s. Historical accounts describe how these ceremonies spread from schools and small communities to big cities and state governments. Eventually, the anniversary was recognized as “Flag Day” in 1916 under a presidential proclamation from Woodrow Wilson.
But a proclamation is not quite a law.
For three decades, various communities set aside June 14 for flag-related events — but National Flag Day was officially created under federal law when President Truman signed an act of Congress in 1949.
An easy computer search (http://usflag.org/uscode36.html) points us to the U.S. Flag Code, which is an extensive compilation of rules and procedures for how to handle, display, and show respect for the flag.
For instance, under the heading, Position and Manner of Display, we’re instructed: “The flag should form a distinctive feature of the ceremony of unveiling a statue or monument, but it should never be used as the covering for the statue or monument.”
And pro franchises might be surprised to learn: “No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform.”
So many guidelines, but few words about the meaning of our flag. It is a powerful symbol, but a symbol of what? Strength borne of shared beliefs? Freedom that tolerates diverse beliefs?
In this uncivil era, there can be partisan bickering over which side loves the flag the most or — in a nastier vein — which side loves the flag too little.
Franklin Lane, Secretary of the Interior, is remembered for words he delivered in 1914. He told his audience the flag had spoken to him that morning and had declared, “I am what you make me; nothing more. I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself.”
Less poetic advice came from the president who issued the original Flag Day proclamation. Woodrow Wilson observed, “The things that the flag stands for were created by the experiences of a great people. Everything that it stands for was written by their lives. The flag is the embodiment not of sentiment, but of history.”
