This is my country and I believe in her, and I believe in her flag, and I’ll defend her, and I’ll fight for her and serve her.”
–General Daniel “Chappie” James
“And I said to them, “Do not let the gates of Jerusalem be opened until the sun is hot; and while they stand guard, let them shut and bar the doors; and appoint guards from among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, one at his watch station and another in front of his own house.”
–Nehemiah 7:3 (NKJV)
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Sometimes it galls me! When I see someone disrespecting the flag of our country my jaws tighten. Whether it’s within their right to do so, it is not respectable. Of course the same people who would trample and spit on the flag don’t know or care anything about respect. They care only about self-centeredness, and of mockery. I’ve known people who fought for that flag, and some who died. I served that flag with honor, and when I see it I still get feelings deep inside me. I love to see it waving in the breeze for it is a symbol, no matter who may say different, of the greatest nation on earth. Today, Flag Day, I want to share something with you written by Robert C. Winthrop, “The Flag of Our Country.”
There is a national flag. He must be cold indeed who can look upon its folds, rippling in the breeze, without pride of country. It he be in a foreign land, the flag is companionship and country itself, with all its endearments.
Who, as he sees it, can think of a state merely? Whose eyes, once fastened upon its radiant trophies, can fail to recognize the image of the whole nation? It has been called a “floating piece of poetry,” and yet I know not if it have an intrinsic beauty beyond other ensigns. Its highest beauty is in what it symbolizes. It is because it represents all, that all gaze at it with delight and reverence.
It is a piece of bunting lifted in the air; but it speaks sublimely, and every part has a voice. Its stripes of alternate red and white proclaim the original union of thirteen states to maintain the Declaration of Independence. Its stars of white on a field of blue, proclaim that union of states constituting our national constellation, which receives a new star with every new state. The two together signify union past and present.
The very colors have a language which was officially recognized by our fathers. White is for purity, red for valor, blue for justice; and all together–bunting, stripes, stars, and colors, blazing in the sky–make the flag of our country to be cherished by all our hearts, to be upheld by all our hands.
I have said enough, and more than enough, to manifest the spirit in which this flag is now committed to your charge. It is the national ensign, pure and simple, dearer to all hearts at this moment, as we lift it to the gale and see no other sign of hope upon the storm cloud which rolls and rattles above it, save that which is its own radiant hues, dearer, a thousandfold dearer to us all than ever it was before, while gilded by the sunshine of prosperity and playing with the zephyrs of peace. It will speak for itself far more elo-quently than I can speak for it.
Behold it! Listen to it! Every star has a tongue; every stripe is articulate. There is no speech nor language where their voices are not heard. There is magic in the web of it. It has an answer for every question of duty. It has a word of good cheer for every hour of gloom or of despondency.
Behold it! Listen to it! It speaks of earlier and later struggles. It speaks of victories and sometimes of reverses, on the sea and on the land. It speaks of patriots and heroes among the living and among the dead; and of him, the first and greatest of them all, around whose consecrated ashes this unnatural and abhorrent strife has been so long raging. But, before all and above all other associations and memories, whether of glorious men, or glorious deeds, or glorious places, its voice is ever of union and liberty, of the Constitution and of the laws.
It’s easy to see when this was written, but it stands true today. The violent and deadly Civil War was tearing this nation apart. Think what it would have been like if there had been no United States of America. Think of the missionaries that would never have been sent, think of the tyrants who would never have been defeated. Problems, many of them, but the flag represents a people who try to overcome and to make right those problems, and spitting or stomping on the flag will only increase the hatred and the issues.
We are at a crisis in our country. Our leadership is poor and weak, and is not trusted. Justices tout their agenda contrary to the Constitution. People who do not want or understand due process of government threaten Justices of the Supreme Court. There is as much a schism in this country today as it was during the time of the Civil War. It is a time of a civil war of values, of morality, and of right and wrong. However, when we look at the flag, there is hope. As the country would rally back to God, there is hope. If the people would repent, there is hope.
Let us gaze upon the flag this day and every time we see it let us remember, and look with hope to the future. I recall the words of General Douglas MacArthur upon his return to Corregidor. “I see the flagpole still stands. Have your troopers hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy every haul them down.” We have many who seek a globalist approach, many who would give in to the demands of other countries and ideologies, but long may the flag–Old Glory–fly over the land of the free and home of the brave.
——————————————
Sometimes it galls me! When I see someone disrespecting the flag of our country my jaws tighten. Whether it’s within their right to do so, it is not respectable. Of course the same people who would trample and spit on the flag don’t know or care anything about respect. They care only about self-centeredness, and of mockery. I’ve known people who fought for that flag, and some who died. I served that flag with honor, and when I see it I still get feelings deep inside me. I love to see it waving in the breeze for it is a symbol, no matter who may say different, of the greatest nation on earth. Today, Flag Day, I want to share something with you written by Robert C. Winthrop, “The Flag of Our Country.”
There is a national flag. He must be cold indeed who can look upon its folds, rippling in the breeze, without pride of country. It he be in a foreign land, the flag is companionship and country itself, with all its endearments.
Who, as he sees it, can think of a state merely? Whose eyes, once fastened upon its radiant trophies, can fail to recognize the image of the whole nation? It has been called a “floating piece of poetry,” and yet I know not if it have an intrinsic beauty beyond other ensigns. Its highest beauty is in what it symbolizes. It is because it represents all, that all gaze at it with delight and reverence.
It is a piece of bunting lifted in the air; but it speaks sublimely, and every part has a voice. Its stripes of alternate red and white proclaim the original union of thirteen states to maintain the Declaration of Independence. Its stars of white on a field of blue, proclaim that union of states constituting our national constellation, which receives a new star with every new state. The two together signify union past and present.
The very colors have a language which was officially recognized by our fathers. White is for purity, red for valor, blue for justice; and all together–bunting, stripes, stars, and colors, blazing in the sky–make the flag of our country to be cherished by all our hearts, to be upheld by all our hands.
I have said enough, and more than enough, to manifest the spirit in which this flag is now committed to your charge. It is the national ensign, pure and simple, dearer to all hearts at this moment, as we lift it to the gale and see no other sign of hope upon the storm cloud which rolls and rattles above it, save that which is its own radiant hues, dearer, a thousandfold dearer to us all than ever it was before, while gilded by the sunshine of prosperity and playing with the zephyrs of peace. It will speak for itself far more elo-quently than I can speak for it.
Behold it! Listen to it! Every star has a tongue; every stripe is articulate. There is no speech nor language where their voices are not heard. There is magic in the web of it. It has an answer for every question of duty. It has a word of good cheer for every hour of gloom or of despondency.
Behold it! Listen to it! It speaks of earlier and later struggles. It speaks of victories and sometimes of reverses, on the sea and on the land. It speaks of patriots and heroes among the living and among the dead; and of him, the first and greatest of them all, around whose consecrated ashes this unnatural and abhorrent strife has been so long raging. But, before all and above all other associations and memories, whether of glorious men, or glorious deeds, or glorious places, its voice is ever of union and liberty, of the Constitution and of the laws.
It’s easy to see when this was written, but it stands true today. The violent and deadly Civil War was tearing this nation apart. Think what it would have been like if there had been no United States of America. Think of the missionaries that would never have been sent, think of the tyrants who would never have been defeated. Problems, many of them, but the flag represents a people who try to overcome and to make right those problems, and spitting or stomping on the flag will only increase the hatred and the issues.
We are at a crisis in our country. Our leadership is poor and weak, and is not trusted. Justices tout their agenda contrary to the Constitution. People who do not want or understand due process of government threaten Justices of the Supreme Court. There is as much a schism in this country today as it was during the time of the Civil War. It is a time of a civil war of values, of morality, and of right and wrong. However, when we look at the flag, there is hope. As the country would rally back to God, there is hope. If the people would repent, there is hope.
Let us gaze upon the flag this day and every time we see it let us remember, and look with hope to the future. I recall the words of General Douglas MacArthur upon his return to Corregidor. “I see the flagpole still stands. Have your troopers hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy every haul them down.” We have many who seek a globalist approach, many who would give in to the demands of other countries and ideologies, but long may the flag–Old Glory–fly over the land of the free and home of the brave.