Flag Day

Today is Flag Day in the U.S. Although not an official federal holiday, the occasion is marked in some cities with parades and celebrations.

One of the longest running Flag Day parade traditions is in Quincy, Massachusetts. This year marks the 58th consecutive Flag Day Parade. The largest parade is held each year in Troy, New York. This year an anticipated 50,000 people will watch the event.  Where parades are not staged, ordinary people make a point of flying or posting the flag outside their homes or places of business.

Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the official banner of the United States by the Second Continental Congress in 1777.  A midwestern dentist, Bernard Cigrand, is generally recognized as the "father of Flag Day," having staged the first known Flag Day celebration at a Wisconsin school in 1885.

In 1916 President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation declaring June 14 to be Flag Day. In 1949 the day was firmly fixed through an Act of Congress. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is the only state that has adopted Flag Day as a state holiday.

This year President Obama has doubled down and proclaimed the entire week of June 14 "Flag Week."

Despite the celebrations in places like Quincy and Troy, most people probably don't know that today is Flag Day. It seems to have taken on the aura of a bygone era-like straw boaters, big band music, or black-and-white TV. Much of that stems from the 1960s, when the Flag was downgraded to an instrument of fashion., embroidered on everything from shirts to underwear. It was also the time that young protesters rebelled against anything by burning the Flag.

But Flag Day remains important. The U.S. does not have a national culture like, say, France or England. We have no official language. We don't have thousands of years of history like other countries do. If someone is a Frenchman or an Englishman, he is the product of thousands of years history, culture, language and art-all of which he shares with his compatriots.

But in America we don't have thousands of years of common background. We, either directly or through our forebears, come from all over the earth. To some extent we share the gifts we bring here. Sometimes that doesn't work. You end up with O'Malley's Pizza or suburban white kids dressing like rappers. Most most of the time it does. It works because, while we may not have a common culture, we have a common set of beliefs. And those beliefs are symbolized and wrapped up in the Flag. That's why our enemies, who can't touch us economically or militarily do the worst thing to us they can think of: They burn the American Flag.

And that's what makes Flag Day still relevant, even though few people know it.

One of the greatest American presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, knew it. Near the end of his presidency, June 14, 1908, TR was taking a meal near Philadelphia, when he noticed a man apparently blowing his nose with the American flag. Incensed at the desecration, the president picked up a piece of wood and began beating the man with it. After hitting him about a half dozen times, TR noticed that the man hadn't been using a flag, but a piece of blue cloth decorated with stars.

The president apologized, but then turned and gave him one last Sonny Corleone whack  for good measure. He got my American pride riled up, said TR as he walked away.

Just thought you might like to know!