Dorothy Brush "Random Thoughts" Published June 9, 2004

Our flag is the "emblem of our unity"

Most calendars remind us that Monday, June 14 is Flag Day. It is a day Americans should fly Old Glory to celebrate the 227 years it has served as our national icon. It was almost a year after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence that the Continental Congress considered a flag.

The Marine Committee presented a Resolution which explained the need for the Navy to fly an authorized national flag under which they could sail. Following the Declaration of Independence colonial vessels were putting to sea to hamper enemy communications and bedevil British commerce. Many flew flags of the colony to which they belonged and if their ship was captured, the British considered them a pirate ship and the crew was hanged.

On June 14, 1777, a design for such a flag was adopted. "The flag of the United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, with a union of thirteen stars of white on a blue field representing a new constellation."

When that new Star-Spangled Banner was first flown by the Continental Army, George Washington is reputed to have described it in these words, "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."

In January, 1794 Vermont and Kentucky were admitted as states and Congress voted to add two stripes and two stars. More states were admitted and when the number soared to twenty, Congress acted on April 4, 1818, to return to the 13 alternate red and white stripes for the original colonies. A star would be added for each new state on the July 4 following its admission. In 1912, the flag had 48 stars. In 1959, Alaska was added and then in1960 Hawaii became the 50th star.

The American flag is a powerful symbol revered by our nation. It has its own special day. On June 14, 1877, the 100th anniversary of the flag was commemorated and ever since, June 14th has been designated Flag Day. President Truman in 1949 proclaimed it a national holiday.

Many words have been written about our flag. Henry Ward Beecher said, "A thoughtful mind when it sees a nation's flag, sees not the flag, but the nation itself." He concluded, "The American flag has been a symbol of Liberty and men rejoiced in it."

In recent years the identical flag that was flying at a crucial moment in our history has been flown again in another place to symbolize continuity in our struggles in the cause of liberty. The flag that flew over the Capitol on Dec. 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked was raised again on Dec. 8 when war was declared on Japan and three days later when war was declared against Germany and Italy. President Roosevelt called it the "flag of liberation" and he carried it with him to the conference in Casablanca. During the Japanese surrender Sept. 2, 1945, it flew from the mast of the USS Missouri.

The flag that flew over Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, was hoisted at the United Nations Charter meeting in San Francisco and over the Big Three Conference at Potsdam. When the Japanese accepted surrender terms that same flag was flying over the White House on August 14, 1945.

President Wilson's Flag Day message in 1917 was powerful. "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. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours."

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Dorothy Copus Brush is a Fairfield Glade resident and Crossville Chronicle staffwriter whose column is published each Wednesday.