This flag is flying in front of our home this morning.

We fly it for all the “patriotic holidays.” An Amarillo Boy Scout troop puts the flag up for us and we display it until the Scouts — and/or their parents — remove it at the end of the day.

Given that today is Flag Day, we’re displaying Old Glory in all its splendor.

This year, in light of recent tragic events half a continent away, it seems more appropriate and fitting than ever to salute the flag and what it means.

I refer, of course, to the massacre in Orlando, where 49 people were gunned down by a monstrous murderer, who then was killed by police. (As an aside, I’m going to follow the lead of several media outlets and from now on decline to mention the gunman’s name — out of respect for his victims.)

The flag stands for many principles. One of them is especially poignant today. It’s diversity.

The nation came into existence because people risked all they had — including their very lives — to escape repression. They came to our shores and established a New World dedicated to the notion that they could be whatever they chose to be without interference from a higher government authority.

They celebrated their true independence by creating a nation dedicated to that, and other, founding principles.

We are still looking for answers as to why the gunman did that terrible act in Florida. Did he hate his victims because they were gay, given that they were dancing in a gay nightclub? Did he act out of some allegiance to a perversion of a great religion?

I don’t know.

I do know — as we all do — that our country has been stained once again by senseless bloodshed.

With that all said, today we fly our flag in honor of the principles that created our great nation. Our spirit has been bloodied, but we must always remain strong and resolute against hate … no matter its form.