Flag Day

Today is Flag Day in America. Sandwiched between Memorial Day and Independence Day, it commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened on June 14, 1777, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.  The resolution called for the flag to "be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."

I don't know about you, but it still bothers me when our flag is burned, trampled or destroyed in any manner.  I still place my hand over my heart when I say the Pledge of Allegiance.  Songs like America the Beautiful, God Bless America and The Star-Spangled Banner still have meaning to me.  No, she's not perfect, but America is still my home sweet home.

Oh, say! can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming;
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there:
Oh, say! does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
~ Francis Scott Key