To be honest, for many people, Flag Day does not rank high in the hierarchy of national holidays.
It’s understandable, in a way. Memorial Day comes at the end of May and has its solemn speeches, and row upon row of neat red, white and blue graveyard banners. It is also a shoppers’ paradise of Memorial Day Sales not to mention the public swimming pool openings heralding the unofficial start of summer.
The Fourth of July offers us that long weekend feeling of cookouts, hot dogs and cool drinks. The warm summer day fuels backyard games and/or lounging in the shade. It concludes with after-dark sparklers and glorious explosions of colors and patriotic emotions.
Falling between these two powerhouse holidays is Flag Day on June 14th.
It is understandable for Flag Day to get overlooked, to get lost in celebration overload. It’s understandable, but it’s too bad. To truly love your country, it seems to me, you should know the history of your country. Flag Day can be one more avenue to that understanding.
Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the flag by a resolution of the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777: “Resolved, that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
The idea that our country was to be thought of as a “new constellation” among the firmament of nations was a revolutionary and radical concept. And the flag was and is meant to represent that profound idea.
Growing up I was told I shouldn’t set my drinking glass on the large Bible on the side table. It wasn’t a sin, exactly, but it certainly wasn’t respectful. I was also taught that the United States flag, as an object, was to be treated with a similar special respect. As a Cub Scout and, briefly, a Boy Scout, I learned how to fold the flag in tandem with another person. I learned that the flag should never be allowed to touch the ground. I learned that a tattered flag should never be flown and when it got to such a condition, should be retired by burning it. This was not too long after WWII, and during the Cold War times, so an element of military regulation lingered in the air.
I was vaguely aware there was a code or law or something that prohibited using the flag design as an article of clothing. I remember being mildly taken aback when I saw someone wear a shirt that was obviously based on the Stars and Stripes. And then, suddenly, flag clothing and apparel was everywhere. This was the 1960s Vietnam times. During that contentious and divisive period, the U.S. flag became a political symbol for those both for and against the war. And I guess to this day, the use of the flag and its motif as political shorthand is used by many on both sides of certain issues.
The United States Flag Code also prohibits using the U.S. flag “for any advertising purposes.” The good news for merchandisers, flag-wearing fashionistas, and protestors alike is that, although the Flag Code is U.S. federal law, there is no penalty for citizens or groups who do not comply with the Code. Part of the enforcement issue hinges on that pesky First Amendment.
True, Flag Day is perhaps not one of the flashier holidays around. Flag Day is not even an official federal holiday although this year the week of June 11-17 is designated as “National Flag Week.” Maybe sometime this week we can fire up our outdoor grills, dig out that old flag necktie or red, white and blue T-shirt and take a moment to contemplate that glorious symbol of the new constellation that is our country.
Norman Knight, a retired Clark-Pleasant Middle School teacher, writes this weekly column for the Daily Journal. Send comments to [email protected].
