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Flag Day – Old Fashioned or Overdue?
By Randy | June 14, 2007
It’s Flag Day today.
That may or may not mean anything to you and whether or not it strikes an emotional chord may be more of a matter of when you were born.
I was born in the mid 1950s and grew up during both a conservative and historical period of upheaval in American society. When I was a boy, Flag Day was an important day. If you were a Cub or Boy Scout you knew how to raise a flag in the morning, take it down at night and even how to dispose of it if necessary. Flag burners were communists or worse.
That was long ago and far away and I would guess that if you asked the average person on the street under the age of 30 what day it is today, they probably couldn’t tell you. They would also probably look at you with a blank look on their face once you told them. I know I’m being a tad stereotypical here and not everyone is going to react the same way, but I think you know what I mean.
Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, delivered a 1914 Flag Day address in which he repeated words he said the flag had spoken to him that morning: “I am what you make me; nothing more. I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself.”
So, happy Flag Day, whether it means something very special to you – or nothing at all.
Topics: Holiday Etiquette, Uncategorized | No Comments »
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