Every country has a flag and that flag represents, in part, what that country means. Let us look at the American flag...that beautiful red, white, and blue rectangular piece of cloth of stars and stripes.
Red stands for valor. We can see throughout our history that the great Americans have displayed bravery when fighting our battles. Our country was founded by valiant men and women who gave everything they had for its freedom. Our country has been safeguarded by valiant men and women who continue to give all for the belief of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
White stands for innocence and purity. Again, we see our roots and realize this must be true. These men and women had nothing to gain beyond the ultimate and unified goal...freedom. They gave everything devoutly for this goal. Their motives were free from evil and full of good. They had a great deal of virtue that helped them achieve this goal, for otherwise, they would have surely perished.
Blue stands for preservation and justice. How beautifully did the founding fathers write our nation's documents. The Preamble of the Constitution begins with "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice...".
The stars and stripes, as stated in a book about our flag, which was published by the House of Representatives in 1977, have great symbolism. "The star is a symbol of the heavens and the divine goal to which man has aspired from time immemorial; the stripe is symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun."
The first American flag was made by Betsy Ross in 1776. The Continental Congress adopted the flag on June 14, 1777, saying "Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."
We now have 50 stars to correspond with the 50 states. We continue to only have 13 stripes in honor of the first 13 states that united to fight for freedom. Those states are Delaware (December 7, 1787), Pennsylvania (December 12, 1787), New Jersey (December 18, 1787), Georgia (January 2, 1788), Connecticut (January 9, 1788), Massachusetts (February 6, 1788), Maryland (April 28, 1788), South Carolina (May 23, 1788), New Hampshire (June 21, 1788), Virginia (June 25, 1788), New York (July 26, 1788), North Carolina (November 21, 1789), and Rhode Island (May 29, 1790).
This link provides some flag etiquette. This includes how to fold the flag, how to display the flag, and other questions such has what to do when your flag is old. Our flag represents a great deal of meaning and history, so be sure to use the proper etiquette!
Sources:
http://www.usflag.org/colors.html
http://www.ushistory.org/betsy/
BTW, Happy Birthday to Mary Todd Lincoln, President Lincoln's wife!
There are cermonies (various part of the world) conducted everyday, when the flag is taken down and folded.It was amazing to witness one.
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It always seems impossible until it is done-Nelson Mandela.
That's so awesome! Flag etiquette says that you should take your flag down every night unless properly illuminated and there's a ceremony type thing for taking it down. It's all really fascinating!
RESPECT LIFE
http://progressiveu.org/blog/respectlife
"It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
~Mother Teresa
Maybe I'm a negative nilly, but I think it's all kind of silly how much we idolize the flag.
Does it really bring us together as a nation? Are we really showing how much we love our country by folding the flag that represents it in a triangle if we can't light it up?
...
Maybe if we treated people with as much respect as we do the American Flag, it would mean more.
Yes it does ..... for most of us.
You are free to feel differently. That is one of the great things about our country. .
I know that you have not said or done anything negative that I am aware of regarding the flag but I don't understand why some people have such difficulty extending the courtesy of respecting our deeply held feelings for the flag and instead do their best to disrespect it. Quite a few brave men have died literally for the purpose of not allowing it to fall in the dirt. I guess it is a cheap way to get attention.
Most of us understand that it is physically just a piece of cloth. It is the symbolism that we care about. Ask a woman who has lost her wedding ring how she feels. Symbols are very important to people and the flag is a symbol that unites us and reminds us of our history and which we hold dear.
My point is yes, symbols are extremely important, but what does it really represent? Does anyone really know?
the flag is a symbol that unites us and reminds us of our history and which we hold dear.
If the flag really did represent that, maybe I wouldn't be apt to feel the way I do about how people idolize it. We can say all we want that the flag represents freedom and our history and whatever American Greetings fourth-of-july-card thing we can think of. The truth is, people are hateful and intolerant and don't live by those ideals which they symbolize in the flag.
I know I'm being a pessimist. I know not everyone is an un-American jerk. But personally, I think saying that we should respect the symbolism of the flag because it "unites us and reminds us of our history and which we hold dear" is like saying a woman who wants to divorce her husband is upset at the loss of her wedding ring.
Well each of us gets to pick what it means to us. There are probably people who find meaning in the flag that you (or I) would not approve of. But there is a huge amount about America to admire and be proud of and I think the flag stands for the best things.
Sure, there is lots of hate and intolerance. And there will continue to be. But we have made great progress and we keep moving in the right direction. Look who we just elected President. I'm not sure most people even thought that was possible.
There is also tremendous good in us. Look at the superhuman relief efforts we mount whenever there is a disaster. We do that at home and also around the world.
It is sad if all you see is the bad or that is all the flag means to you.
Many years ago I took an oath upon being commissioned into the military. It stated:
"I (state your name), having been appointed a 2LT in the U.S. Army under the conditions indicated in this document, do accept such appointment and do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter, so help me God."
It states that I hold a document to be my guiding principal before all else. It does not mention orders, the president, or congress. My life is governed by a document, hundreds of years old. The constitution of the United States. This document is forged out of an idea that men, not governments, are endowed by rights from their creator. And that these rights, these ideals really, superseed all esle, including the lives of my men or myself. This document is simply the resevoir of the basis that our country is founded upon. The flag is the physical manisfestation of those ideals.
In such, the flag does not have to have meaning to you. That is the whole point of it. It is your right to detest it if you so choose. Just as it is my right to look upon it and tear up when I realize the enormity of it's meaning and purpose. The flag is all about a guiding principal. It is for that reason why we drape it over fallen Soldiers and the same reason that it is presented to their families. It states that this Soldier GAVE their life for a document that say we can be better than what we are. There is a poem by, I believe, a Father Dennis Edward O'Brien. It is called The Soldier and the last paragraph goes:
It is the Soldier who salutes the flag,
who serves beneath the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag,
who allows the protester to burn the flag.
Maybe that will help put what the flag symbolizes into perspective. If not, then there is really no other way that I can explain it.
What saddens me is that we in our society have reached a point where we the people no longer understand these simple truths. We the people have become so hedonistic that we fail to understand what a treasured gift the United States really is. It is funny, as I prepare to go home on leave (actually will see my kids on Christmas!!!) and think that 99% of the poeple I will talk to will never actually comprehend what it means to be an American. Funny, maybe not so much. It actually disgusts me a bit, but that is for a later time.
I don't think it's the flag she detests. It's the people who raise the flag to prove their American-ness and then live their lives in complete disregard for what the flag is supposed to symbolize.
The flag means something different to you than it does to the person who puts one up to fit in with the neighbors (who put one up so people wouldn't think they were unpatriotic), the person who puts it up because it brings business to his or her store/restaurant/gas station, etc, and then leaves it up all day and night, no matter what the weather, and doesn't seem to care that the colors are faded and it's ripped apart in places. It means something different to you than the person flying the flag just to say they have a flag.
When my uncle went to Iraq, he attached a flag to his plane and flew it through the sky on the anniversary of my dad's death. He presented that flag, properly folded and encased in glass, to my mom in August with tears in his eyes and I thought it was beautiful.
It doesn't make me roll my eyes any less when I see a worn out, mass-produced, 99 cent piece of painted fabric glued to the back of a pickup truck next to a bumper sticker that proudly and ironically states "these colors don't run."
It's not the flag that people detest. It's the fact that the meaning is completely lost on, this is me being cynical, the majority of people flying it. The fact that the physical manifestation of the freedoms and liberties our country stands for is being mass produced by China on cheap, painted fabric, toothpicks, plastic headphones, arm chairs, golf balls, plates and napkins, you name it. Nothing quite represents your freedom like picking rotting food out of your teeth with it, right?
Like BurningExample, I am pessimistic and willing to bet that the majority of the people with flags in their yards see no meaning to it past "look how patriotic I am!" And that disgusts me. Not the flag itself, but the fact that what it means to most Americans is not actually what it means.
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Hmm, the "you" in my post was meant to be generic. I apologize for making it sounds like an attack. I was making a general point, one of many I could have chosen.
"It doesn't make me roll my eyes any less when I see a worn out, mass-produced, 99 cent piece of painted fabric glued to the back of a pickup truck next to a bumper sticker that proudly and ironically states 'these colors don't run.'" Sadly I do. I find it insincere and almost cowardly (depending on the who, where, and what). What it should say is, "These colors don't run as long as I am not expected to fight or have my children fight." See, I admit it, I am very cynical. I think that the American society has completely lost it's moral compass. Not with the gay rights issue, or abortion, or any of the other multitude of issues out there that people naturally assume that I as a conservative use to define myself. I feel we have completely forgotten that it is "us" that owe this country. Best quote for our times...Ask not what your country can do for you, ask instead what you can do for your country. Until people realize that they are not the center of anything, but part of a greater whole, we will be lost.
My posting was simply to answer the what does it really mean question. I completely agree with everything you wrote. If it came off as an attack against BurningExample, I am sorry. Not intended.
I think you explained this really well. : )
And CONGRATS!!! on getting to go home for Christmas! That's awesome that you will be able to spend this Christmas with your family! Thank you so much for all you do for America, for freedom, and for me.
RESPECT LIFE
http://progressiveu.org/blog/respectlife
"It is poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish."
~Mother Teresa
I feel the same way. That's why when I become dictator of my own country we won't have a flag, just a name.
Maybe if we treated people with as much respect as we do the American Flag, it would mean more
I agree.