This coming Wednesday is Flag Day here in America.
Most of us have heard of it, but what is it? It’s a day of commemoration but not an actual holiday. Signed into law in 1949 simply to honor the flag for what it symbolizes, there are some small, specific ceremonies held, and Americans usually display their flag, but schools and businesses are open.
Flag Day celebrates the day that George Washington approved the final design of the “American Flag,” famously sewn by Betsy Ross, though there were precursors made by others. It wasn’t our modern flag; it wasn’t even the only flag we had at the time. As with most nations, we had several flags used by various groups for various reasons. Today, however, the “Stars and Stripes” is America’s only national flag and is easily recognized around the world. It’s very aesthetically pleasing; its colors and design are clear and brilliant.
Our colors were chosen specifically: white was chosen to represent purity; blue represents loyalty, and red was chosen to represent valor. The stars were chosen to symbolize our new nation as a new constellation under the heavens. Their number changed over time, from 13, for the original colonies, to the current 50, for the states of the union. Today, the 13 stripes remain to represent the original colonies. Of course, it may be that the colors also gave a nod to the British Union Jack, to which, perhaps, fidelity died hard.
Before technology made worldwide pictures available, no flag of any nation was easily recognizable, and many nations had multiple designs of their flag, each design used for a specific purpose. Today, it’s commonplace to recognize many of them because each nation has one predominant flag. Each is designed with meaning, to be representative of its nation. Technology, too, brings them to us via sports, news and international events, and those adapted into commercial products have become iconic.
They don’t all, however, always remain the same. Change comes to the flag as it comes to its nation. When the people of any nation honor its flag, it’s always only for what it represents, and what any flag conjures for anyone is relative.
Today, there is a little dichotomy of heart among most Americans. Though there is devotion to a nation that improved life overall for many, and protected many of us in times of trouble, sadly, much of our nation’s birth was less than democratic and far more violent than we’d like to remember. Still, our history mustn’t be altered, and our flag should stand for everything and everyone under it: her indigenous people and their history; all our hardships and every battle; what America was promised to become; what many brave and selfless people died for it to aspire to; and continued work to achieve a true democracy, and literal freedom and equality. America, constantly evolving, sadly, hasn’t yet achieved those, supposedly original, goals for all. We have always had, we still have now, powerful enemies of that end, both here and abroad.
Our nation, right now, is in some turmoil. Just a few decades ago, when we saw the flag flying from a porch, flagpole, or vehicle, we knew exactly why; we felt camaraderie. After 9-11, we all flew our flag. If we didn’t own one, we went out and got one, and we all flew it for the same reason. We were displaying our unity.
Today, it’s not as clear. We know why we are flying our flag, but we can no longer be sure why others are. We can’t just assume that camaraderie. Today, displaying the colors may be showing support for only a section of the nation’s people, one school of thought, or signal a specific form of protest. We used to know what a flag, whether flying, displayed on a barn, or as a bumper sticker, meant. If I honk my horn in support, will it be interpreted as such or seen as antagonistic? Today, it can mean comrade or political rival, veteran, patriot, support for a protest … on either side.
It’s a hard pill to swallow that after all this nation’s people have done and been through together from vicious to valiant, and what we’ve meant to each other during prosperity, poverty, disease, and war, that we could arrive at a place where our flag, and its meaning, that united us, could actually become a symbol of many ideals that separate us.
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