Tag Archives: Flag Day

local news

Happy Flag Day!

I want to wish Old Glory, our Stars and Stripes and the symbol of our democratic society a happy Flag Day.

Betsy Ross crafted a marvelous piece of cloth back in the day and, oh brother, it has withstood plenty of tests, crises and even some assaults on its very self.

Which brings me to my brief point.

We should celebrate Flag Day not just because we honor the cloth that we fly in front of our homes (as I do in my Princeton, Texas, home). We should honor what it symbolizes.

It is the symbol of liberty, and it embodies the very founding of our great republic. Remember that our nation came into being when our founders protested the rule of the English monarch. Therefore, we are a nation born out of dissent.

Therefore, the flag we fly — and we honor! — is the very symbol of that principle.

Should those who burn the flag to protest government policies be punished because they demonstrate their opposition in that manner? Not by government edict! The Constitution protects us against any government reprisal.

I’ll “punish” anyone who chooses to burn the flag in an effort to lure me to their point of view. I am likely to reject whatever point the flag burner intends to make.

It’s their right to do so. The flag they burn is the very symbol of that right. It is why I honor the flag by flying it proudly.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

May the flag fly proudly … always!

It’s time to wish us all a happy Flag Day.

We love Old Glory, the Star Spangled Banner, the Stars and Stripes.  By whatever name we call it, we cherish our national symbol.

That is the more important point I want to make with this brief blog post. It is a symbol of the nation our founders created.

Those wise men wrote our Constitution and ratified it in 1787 after winning our independence from the English crown. The flag has come to mean many things to millions upon millions of Americans then and in the two-plus centuries since that time.

What it means to me is simple, but a bit nuanced. The flag flies as a symbol of the liberties we enjoy as citizens of a great nation. Among those liberties is the right — as expressed in the very First Amendment to that Constitution — to register peaceful protest. If we don’t like what our government does for us or to us, we are able to assemble “peaceably” without recrimination.

Yep, that means no tear gas, no clubbing by cops, no handcuffs and, dare I say it, no knees pressed into the back of our necks while the police are detaining us.

We are able to speak our minds.

So, the flag is far more than a piece of cloth stitched together in red, white and blue. It is an ideal by which we live and for which we fight. The ideal is being challenged these days as the nation grapples with injustice, which it always has done.

However, the flag will continue to fly and it will continue to represent the ideals we hold dear as proud citizens of this most exceptional nation.

local news

Flag takes on more significance

flag

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.