Flag Day 2017

In my never-ending quest to dispel the libel that liberals don't love the United States and the flag, here again is my video from 2015 on this Flag Day.

Flag Day Salute

I am well aware that in some ways we Americans turn our flag into an object of worship in ways many nations do not. But we have developed a love for the metaphor it has become. It is a metaphor for us- all of us. It is a metaphor for our history in the 13 stripes; it is a metaphor for our extent and diversity (!) with its 50 stars. I am offended when conservatives take the flag and wrap themselves in it as if they own it.

They don't.

It is the flag of my ancestors:

• German, Jewish, Scottish, and who knows what else.
• It is the flag my Great-uncle Jacob died carrying in the Civil War.
• It is the flag under which my Dad treated wounded or dying comrades in the Battle of the Bulge.
• It is the flag of the country and we liberals are just as strong about it as conservatives claim to be.

Here is the video I put together last year for Flag Day. In celebration of who we are, I present it to you again. Enjoy.

Flag Day 2015

Flag Day is celebrated on June 14. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened on that day in 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. The United States Army also celebrates the Army Birthday on this date; Congress adopted "the American continental army" after reaching a consensus position in the Committee of the Whole on June 14, 1775.

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress. Flag Day is not an official federal holiday. On June 14, 1937, Pennsylvania became the first U.S. state to celebrate Flag Day as a state holiday, beginning in the town of Rennerdale.