Today is Flag Day. Of all the
national things that we each hold sacred, our flag is at the top. If we each
still believe in the ideals of this republic then our flag is the standard
bearer of our beliefs and even though we are busy, and it's a weekday and the
kids have homework and they need to get to soccer practice, we ought to
remember this day.
There was a time in our history
when our flag was empty of experience. It had the symbolism of a united people
and the expectation of greatness, but we were a young country and as yet we had
little collective history.
The United States wasn’t even a
year old when Continental Congress adopted the flag design on June 14th, 1777.
But now, centuries later we remember that our flag is much more than red and
white cloth stripes and symbolic stars in blue.
It’s everything that’s ever
happened to this country and everything we’ve ever done. It’s victory and
defeat. It’s protests and pageantry. It’s honor with humility and shame with
remorse. It’s living and dying for principle.
A nation is not its flag. Our flag
is the collective body and history of our nation. It’s not only the rights we
are constitutionally guaranteed, but it’s also the personal human rights we
embrace and grant to others through courtesy and compassion and character.
Above
all the flag is our waving symbol for the entire world to see our courage, our
liberty, our freedom and our belief in the God we trust.
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