“The [American] flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing.” –U.S. Flag Code
Flag Day (June 14) is this week, which is observed, if not exactly celebrated, across America as a way of honoring our flag. The date was chosen because on June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress approved the first official flag of the new nation its members had declared into existence the previous July. Of course, in 1777, a rather formidable British military force was contesting that declaration, so it was thought that an official flag would help morale and the war effort. It was also traditional for a nation to have its own flag.
Congress’s resolution stated “the flag be 13 stripes alternate red and white; that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” This design was based on an earlier flag, called “The Grand Union,” which the Continental Army had carried in 1776.
Originally the flag was to acquire both a new star and new stripe for every new state entering the union, but at some point it occurred to Congress — or perhaps to the flag makers — that the flag’s shape would become unwieldy if a new stripe was added for every additional state. So in 1818, Congress limited the number of stripes on the flag to the original 13, representing our first 13 colonies, and later states. Henceforth, only a star would be added when a new state joined the Union, but again there were design problems because the original flag (supposedly designed by Betsy Ross) arranged the stars in a circle. This meant that with each new state — and star — the circle would have to get bigger or the stars smaller. Arranging them in rows, our present design, solved that problem.
Of course, new problems came up, most dealing with flag protocol — how to display it, fold it, carry it, protect it and so on. Not unexpectedly, given that matters pertaining to the flag come under the purview of the federal government, this soon resulted in flag codes, regulations and instructions too numerous to mention or even understand. And at least since the 1960s, these regulations are often ignored, and oftentimes flaunted, usually in the name of free speech. For example, wearing the American flag on your fanny or burning it on your lawn is considered political expression and protected under the First Amendment.
That said, protecting speech, including symbolic political speech, even if it is offensive to the majority, is the very essence of the freedoms and rights guaranteed to us in this nation, whose most famous symbol we celebrate, or at least observe, on Flag Day.
