Just What Makes Flag Day So Special?

In an early afternoon June breeze, the American flag flopped slowly back and forth atop the pole outside the Herald office as it has done countless times before.
Thousands of people pass by it daily, and probably disregard, even when it flies at half-staff in memory of a fallen soldier or other hero. Flags are, after all, merely pieces of multi-colored cloth stitched together.
This Sunday, June 14 is Flag Day. It will not be celebrated by any special parades or speeches. No one will get a day off from work because of it. This special day of homage to the rectangular tri-colors that represent our nation will slip past, largely unnoticed by a vast majority of my fellow Americans.
The day was officially set apart in 1916 by New Jersey’s own native son President Woodrow Wilson. It was not until President Harry Truman recognized June 14 as National Flag Day that its status became official.
Down through the years, the Stars and Stripes has been burned, spat upon and degraded by those who spurn our values and lifestyle. Thankfully, it has remained unblemished in the eyes of those who, despite all America’s failings and shortcomings, still believe it is the best place on earth to live.
It waves at the borders as masses cross from North and South. It waves atop masts of sailing vessels and by government buildings across the land from Maine to Hawaii, Key West, Fla. To Barrow, Alaska.
The flag has been carried into countless battles when enemy bullets flew over the heads of the nation’s sons and daughters. It was passed on from failing hands to others who marched onward to victory.
Finally, the grand old flag will cover the earthly remains of veterans who served faithfully and well in America’s hour of need.
Carried in parades, the flag gets about as much respect from the public as does Flag Day. Few stand at attention. Fewer take off their hats to honor its passing.
Patriotism to some is trite, symbolized by that piece of cloth or plastic on which are 50 stars and 13 red and white stripes.
It is sad; indeed that they do not revere the memory of those who struggled, bled and died that that very flag might continue to wave over schoolyards and sports playing fields.
Flag Day was first observed in 1877, and that occasion was to mark the centennial of when the flag as we know it, was selected in 1777 by the Continental Congress.
Was it by some odd coincidence that Flag Day 1971 was the date when a gray wooden ocean-going minesweeper, the USS Gallant (MSO-489), successfully crossed the Pacific Ocean to dock at Cam Rahn Bay, South Vietnam?
We set sail from Long Beach, Calif. for that war-torn nation on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17). A warship under full sail might have made the crossing in less time, but awaiting parts for 19 days in Agana, Guam didn’t help us set any records.
In any case, I can still recall the Stars and Stripes waving as we moored alongside South Vietnamese naval gunboats. The flag took on a vivid appearance on that special Flag Day in that mountainous sheltered harbor.
Patriotism ebbs and flows with the tide of humanity. Everyone flew the flag in the days after Sept. 11, 2001. There was a shortage of the tri-colors, because everyone was virtually pushing each other out of the way to be the first to buy a new flag and put it up in their window or yard or on their car.
I recall students at Richard Teitelman School holding a huge American flag on the playing field for some past patriotic occasion.
Perhaps some of those young people who carried that flag onto the field are now serving the nation the flag represents.
It is not until we are out of the country, away from all that means America that we may come to fully appreciate what the flag truly represents. I get chills when I hear people tell of what it meant to them or their grandparents to come to America to be free.
The aspect of leaving one’s homeland with little but hope, a dream and clothes in a satchel is what brought masses of immigrants to this land. They were often greeted by ignorance and intolerance because they were different, either by ethnic background or color.
America, at first, might not have been all they had dreamed it would be, but it was a land that offered hope and opportunity. To that end, recently, a friend who assists Literacy Volunteers showed me a photo of a young lady in cap and gown clutching a diploma.
I flashed back on that young Russian woman who came to America to work in Iowa, only to learn, on arrival in New York that the job she hoped for had been taken. Distraught, but not without hope, she called friends in Wildwood. They offered a ray of hope. The rest she did on her own. She learned English, because she saw it as a key, and she knew America still offered promise to hard workers.
She labored tirelessly, held down several jobs, went to college, never wanting a handout, but always striving to excel.
She will soon enter Drexel University to study chemical engineering. I believe her success is guaranteed, since she is willing to work for success, and will accept nothing short of that goal.
It is stories like hers that give Flag Day added importance to me. I wonder if the same could happen to a humble immigrant or ordinary citizen in any other nation on earth. That, my friend, is what makes this place, and that flag, so special.