Flag Day – June 14

“The Ragged Old Flag,” by Johnny Cash, speaks of the flag and all she’s been through as a symbol of our nation. The lyrics remind us of our history.

“You see, we got a little hole in the flag there,
When Washington took it across the Delaware.
and it got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key sat watching it,
writing “Say Can You See”
It got a rip in New Orleans, with Packingham and Jackson
tugging at its seams.
and It almost fell at the Alamo
beside the Texas flag,
But she waved on through.
She got cut by a sword at Chancellorsville,
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee and Beauregard and Bragg,
And the south blew hard on
That Ragged Old Flag.”

“On Flanders Field in World War I,
She got a big hole from a Bertha Gun,
She turned blood red in World War II
She hung limp and low a time or two,
She was in Korea, Vietnam, She went where she was sent
by her Uncle Sam.”

“She’s been abused,
She’s been burned, dishonored, denied an’ refused,
And the government for which she stands
Has been scandalized throughout the land.”

Johnny Cash reminds us of the care required each time we display the flag.

“So we raise her up every morning
And we bring her down slow every night,
We don’t let her touch the ground,
And we fold her up right.”

Let us honor “That Ragged Old Flag,” by displaying it properly on Flag Day, June 14th.

“The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing.” US Code, Title 36, Chapter 10, 176. (j)
**The flag is flown from sunrise to sunset.
**The flag should be raised briskly in the morning and slowly at the end of the day.

**The flag should never touch the ground.

**Tradition for folding the flag is in a triangular form with the blue union showing.
**The United States flag is flown higher than other flags.
** If the flag is displayed on a wall: The stripes may be displayed horizontally or vertically with the union uppermost and to the flag’s own right.
** When a flag becomes tattered and worn, “it should be destroyed, preferably by burning” in a very discreet manner.
** The flag can be washed.
** No part of the flag should ever be used as costume or athletic uniform. The flag lapel pin, as a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.

 

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