Sunday, June 14, 2015

Why this flag?


     I love the American flag, how it looks, what it represents. There's so much history bound up in every stripe; three years ago I set out to mark Flag Day, June 14—which fell on a Thursday in 2012—by answering a basic question about the American flag: Where did it come from?

     Why red, white and blue? Why these colors and not, oh, green and beige?
     Flag Day is Thursday, so it's an apt moment to wonder, and a quick glance into the murky and legend-prone history of our national flag offers a fairly solid answer.
     First, yes, Flag Day is without question a third-rate patriotic holiday, if you consider the Fourth of July as the undisputed No. 1, with the solemn military Memorial and Veterans days tying for second. Nobody gets off work for Flag Day. It's sort of an Arbor Day for flags, almost like one of those made-up Hallmark holidays, like Grandparents Day.
     Except Flag Day actually commemorates something real, June 14, 1777, when the Continental Congress decreed: "The flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."
     Why those colors? In the 19th century, when people felt free to make stuff up, one patriotic guide suggested red, white and blue were handed down by God at Mt. Sinai.
     The short, factual answer is our colors are red, white and blue because the British flag is red, white and blue. Changes that seem revolutionary in retrospect actually occur in stages, and when George Washington began leading his troops, they saw themselves as British citizens fighting for their rights. Thus his Grand Union Flag, raised over the Continental Army in January 1776, had the British Union Flag where the field of stars is now.
     The British flag at the time was an amalgam of two crosses, the English cross of St. George and the Scottish Cross of St. Andrew The reason George's is red disappears into medieval lore (my guess: he's a martyr; red symbolized blood and courage). The reason Andrew's is white on blue rests on 1340-year-old legend: a sign, the X-shaped saltire cross, that Scottish King Angus MacFergus II supposedly saw in the sky before a battle in 732.
     So the red, white and blue in the American flag represent, originally, blood, clouds and sky, which sounds about right.
     Washington's version might have stuck—other former British colonies, such as Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and, surprisingly, the state of Hawaii, still have the Union Jack (as the British Union flag was called after the addition of the red X of Ireland in 1801) in miniature on the upper corners of their flags.
     But in the 18 months between the time Washington hoisted his Grand Union flag, and Congress codified it, passions had inflamed, the British banner jettisoned, and somebody had substituted a field of stars.
     No one is sure who. It almost certainly wasn't Betsy Ross. Much received flag wisdom is late 19th century whimsy embraced as fact by the ever-credulous public. Nothing suggests Ross had a hand in the creation of the American flag, beyond a paper presented in 1870 by her grandson based on family tradition. She was a seamstress and sewed a Pennsylvania navy flag, but beyond that the few known facts point elsewhere.
     The next time Congress took up the flag was 1793, prompted by the admission to the union of Vermont and Kentucky. Sen. Stephen R. Bradley—of Vermont, naturally—proposed a bill "for altering the Flag of the United States" to reflect the change. It passed the Senate, but the always fractious House bristled at being asked to consider this minor matter.
     One representative called the bill "a trifling business which ought not to engross the attention of the House, when it was its duty to discuss matters of infinitely greater importance." Something Congress ought to keep in mind when debating the next inevitable flag burning amendment—previous Congresses didn't even want to bother talking about the flag's design, never mind fret over those misguided enough to burn one. (I'm glad Flag Day is unofficial; enforced honor loses significance.)
     After complaining, Congress gave the flag 15 stars and stripes. It stayed that way for a quarter century, despite the addition of five more states, until 1818, when the prospect of an ever more striped flag brought about the current scheme of holding steady at 13 stripes, adding one more star with each new state, on the July 4 after that state is admitted.
     Which means, if you are my age—I just turned 52—or older, you can amaze children by informing them that you are older than the American flag, the current version of which became official on July 4, 1960, when executive order No. 10834 went into effect, giving the flag a 50th star to reflect the admission of Hawaii the previous August.
     Have a great Flag Day; fly it if you got it.
     "There is the national flag," Sen. Charles Sumner once wrote. "He must be cold, indeed, who can look upon its folds rippling in the breeze without pride of country."

    —Originally published in the Sun-Times, June 14, 2012

21 comments:

  1. Informative and touching column. Much appreciated from a History teacher and 4th of July baby.

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  2. Exactly, the Betsy Ross stories of yore, could be inaccurate.

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  3. I love the look of that Grand Union Flag- I think I'm going to fly it this fourth of July.

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    1. It was flying over a replica of Admiral Perry's ship, "The Lawrence," docked at Put-in-Bay a few years back.

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  4. Yes, up with the Union, down with the Confederates, past and present.

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  5. Kent looks more like you though and Ross more like his mom.

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    1. oops, this belonged on the other post today about baseball

      I see Mr. S. prosthetics article is in the ST for Sunday. A good public service though I would be too squeamish to observe that, but thank goodness for those technicians.

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  6. Like most symbols, people start to spend more energy defending the symbol rather than what it meant to represent.
    Then you have the idiots who "defend" the flag while at the same time desecrating it as clothing.
    It becomes laughable when protecting a multi colored rag is more important than the people and the struggle for freedom that was its meaning.
    But, even with that said, I fly the flag on National Holidays and try to treat it with respect.
    I guess I'm as confused as anybody, maybe more so.

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  7. Nice column. "In the 19th century, when people felt free to make stuff up..." Yes, fortunately we've put those days behind us! ; )

    The flag represents different things to different people. I know many who are uncomfortable with showing much appreciation for the flag, because its use has been co-opted by "the other side". I often lament the fact that, due largely to the protests against the Vietnam War, I think, the lefties in this country turned on the flag as something of a symbol for the military-industrial complex. The Right, meanwhile, has appropriated it as their prime symbol for American exceptionalism and an "America is always right, no matter what we do" mindset.

    We need folks like NS to reclaim a non-partisan appreciation of the flag for those with no agenda.

    To me, at its most basic, the flag stands, and has always stood, for freedom. The nation has not always lived up to its promise, but that's not the flag's fault... Somebody who proclaims, in response to a column such as this, that it is more a "symbol of tyranny" is a blatant rabble-rouser at a minimum, or perhaps delusional. Though "asshole" works, too, Clark St.!

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    1. At first I left the rabid, "We're facists!" stuff up, because it's so obviously deranged. But then I just didn't like looking at it; it's not an argument, it's just a blanket condemnation.

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    2. I can already see the protestations of censorship. It's Neil's blog, so he can do as he sees fit, but I would've left it up with a reply (like Neil's above) and a message to ignore the foaming-at-the-mouth idiocy. Removing the post only steels their belief that they are being persecuted. Ignoring them, rather than arguing, is a way to say "You can't talk to stupid." But, again, its not my blog or my decision to make.

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    3. I have to be careful, though. More often than not, I'm the "stupid" that can't be talked to.

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    4. Well, now that NS has removed both posts that I was referring to in my last sentence, I just want to make it clear that Clark St. was NOT the rabble-rouser, but had responded to him! : )

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    5. I've always felt you must respond to garbage like that or people start to think there must be something to their garbage.

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    6. I was always uncomfortable when my fellow leftists showed what I considered to be disrespect for the flag. Doing such things as using it as a bedspread so they could have sex under it (or even on top of it). The wearing of it as clothing never sat well with me. Those who wore the seat-of-the-pants flag patches on faded jeans were the most offensive to my delicate sensibilities. I preferred the understated flag decals with the peace symbol that replaced the fifty stars (excuse the awful unintentional pun), and proudly displayed one on the rear window of my '66 Mustang.

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  8. I must have missed something here, but Jakash, you said it just right about the flag.

    The extreme left can be as bad as the extreme right.

    As for posts I say, take out the garbage.

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  9. As an American, I support the right of idiots to have and voice opinions that differ from my own.
    My reasoning being that sometimes I am the idiot.

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  10. Interesting that the Confederacy stuck with the red, white and blue color scheme. Also, the use of stars to connote the number of states. And the "southern cross" design of the Confederate Battle Flag evokes the Union Jack.

    An attractive enough ensign, despite it's odious association with a cause well lost.

    The "Stars and Stripes" is indeed a stirring sight except when waved by demagogues demonstrating the truth of Dr. Johnson's comment that "patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel."

    Tom Evans .

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  11. Nice car up on top!

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  12. Never thought badly of folks wearing clothing made of flag material. Not likely a real flag made into clothing but a replica. I view it as honoring the flag. Hate when folks burn the flag. Haven’t seen much of that lately, but for a while it seemed to be a trend. My entire block used to fly the flag on certain holidays. Don’t see that much anymore either.

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  13. And the right thinks only they can be patriotic or love the flag.

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