Flag Day

We celebrate Flag Day on June 14. Today. I hope you're flying YOUR flag. I hope you have a flag.

We are celebrating the adoption of the flag of the United States on 14 June 1777. The Flag Resolution did not specify any particular arrangement, number of points, nor orientation for the stars. This flag shows 13 outwardly-oriented five-pointed stars arranged in a circle, the "Betsy Ross" flag. Although the Betsy Ross legend is not taken seriously by many historians, the design itself is the oldest version of any U.S. flag known to exist; it is not the oldest surviving flag artifact in cloth form, but its likeness appears on older physical relics, namely, the contemporary battlefield paintings by John Trumbull and Charles Willson Peale. They depict the circular star arrangement, and thus provide the first known historical documentation on the flag's appearance. Popular designs at the time were varied and most were individually crafted rather than mass-produced.

This flag is coming to have greater popularity now. It is widely considered to express a certain sentiment appropriate to patriots. It has been officially cited as a symbol of alienated, radical, right-wing extremism.

We can not see with certainty the future of our country. It does seem that there are forces who would destroy it. I hope that you will join me and take this day as one more on which to pray for the United States and its survival as a republic.