The picture of our flag at right was taken at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan while I was there. The flag shown was being flown in honor of a highschool classmate who perished at the World Trade Center on 09/11/2001.
Celebrate Flag Day by remembering all she stands for today and all those who stood up for her in the history of our great land.
I am the Flag
I am the flag of the United
States of America.
I was born on June 14, 1777, in Philadelphia.
There the Continental Congress adopted my stars and stripes
as the national flag.
My thirteen stripes alternating red and white, with a union
of thirteen white stars in a field of blue, represented a new constellation, a
new nation dedicated to the personal and religious liberty of mankind.
Today fifty stars signal from my union, one for each of the
fifty sovereign states in the greatest constitutional republic the world has
ever known.
My colors symbolize the patriotic ideals and spiritual
qualities of the citizens of my country.
My red stripes proclaim the fearless courage and integrity
of American men and boys and the self-sacrifice and devotion of American mothers
and daughters.
My white stripes stand for liberty and equality for all.
My blue is the blue of heaven, loyalty, and faith.
I represent these eternal principles: liberty, justice, and
humanity.
I embody American freedom: freedom of speech, religion,
assembly, the press, and the sanctity of the home.
I typify that indomitable spirit of determination brought to
my land by Christopher Columbus and by all my forefathers - the Pilgrims,
Puritans, settlers at James town and Plymouth.
I am as old as my nation.
I am a living symbol of my nation's law: the Constitution of
the United States and the Bill of Rights.
I voice Abraham Lincoln's philosophy: "A government of the
people, by the people,for the people."
I stand guard over my nation's schools, the seedbed of good
citizenship and true patriotism.
I am displayed in every schoolroom throughout my nation;
every schoolyard has a flag pole for my display.
Daily thousands upon thousands of boys and girls pledge
their allegiance to me and my country.
I have my own law—Public Law 829, "The Flag Code" - which
definitely states my correct use and display for all occasions and
situations.
I have my special day, Flag Day. June 14 is set aside to
honor my birth.
Americans, I am the sacred emblem of your country. I symbolize your
birthright, your heritage of liberty purchased with blood and sorrow.I am your title deed of freedom, which is yours to enjoy and hold in trust for posterity.
If you fail to keep this sacred trust inviolate, if I am nullified and destroyed, you and your children will become slaves to dictators and despots.
Eternal vigilance is your price of freedom.
As you see me silhouetted against the peaceful skies of my country, remind yourself that I am the flag of your country, that I stand for what you are - no more, no less.
Guard me well, lest your freedom perish from the earth.
Dedicate your lives to those principles for which I stand: "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
I was created in freedom. I made my first appearance in a battle for human liberty.
God grant that I may spend eternity in my "land of the free and the home of the brave" and that I shall ever be known as "Old Glory," the flag of the United States of America.
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