Happy Flag Day

I am the Flag
by Ruth Apperson Rous

• I am the flag of the United States of America.



• I was born on June 14, 1777, in Philadelphia.



• There the Continental Congress adopted my stars and stripes as the national flag.



• My thirteen stripes alternating red and white, with a union of thirteen white stars in a field of blue, represented a new constellation, a new nation dedicated to the personal and religious liberty of mankind.



• Today fifty stars signal from my union, one for each of the fifty sovereign states in the greatest constitutional republic the world has ever known.



• My colors symbolize the patriotic ideals and spiritual qualities of the citizens of my country.



• My red stripes proclaim the fearless courage and integrity of American men and boys and the self-sacrifice and devotion of American mothers and daughters.



• My white stripes stand for liberty and equality for all.



• My blue is the blue of heaven, loyalty, and faith.



• I represent these eternal principles: liberty, justice, and humanity.



• I embody American freedom: freedom of speech, religion, assembly, the press, and the sanctity of the home.



• I typify that indomitable spirit of determination brought to my land by Christopher Columbus and by all my forefathers - the Pilgrims, Puritans, settlers at James town and Plymouth.



• I am as old as my nation.
  I am a living symbol of my nation's law: the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.



• I voice Abraham Lincoln's philosophy: "A government of the people, by the people,for the people."



• I stand guard over my nation's schools, the seedbed of good citizenship and true patriotism.



• I am displayed in every schoolroom throughout my nation; every schoolyard has a flag pole for my display.



• Daily thousands upon thousands of boys and girls pledge their allegiance to me and my country.



• I have my own law—Public Law 829, "The Flag Code" - which definitely states my correct use and display for all occasions and situations.



• I have my special day, Flag Day. June 14 is set aside to honor my birth.



• Americans, I am the sacred emblem of your country. I symbolize your birthright, your heritage of liberty purchased with blood and sorrow.



• I am your title deed of freedom, which is yours to enjoy and hold in trust for posterity.



• If you fail to keep this sacred trust inviolate, if I am nullified and destroyed, you and your children will become slaves to dictators and despots.



• Eternal vigilance is your price of freedom.



• As you see me silhouetted against the peaceful skies of my country, remind yourself that I am the flag of your country, that I stand for what you are - no more, no less.



• Guard me well, lest your freedom perish from the earth.



• Dedicate your lives to those principles for which I stand: "One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."



• I was created in freedom. I made my first appearance in a battle for human liberty.



• God grant that I may spend eternity in my "land of the free and the home of the brave" and that I shall ever be known as "Old Glory," the flag of the United States of America.