Flag Day celebrates the American flag and occurs on the anniversary of the flag’s adoption by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777. Previously the individual colonies fought under many different flags with various symbols – rattlesnakes, pine trees – and slogans – ”Don’t Tread on Me,” “Liberty or Death,” and “Conquer or Die.” However, the Declaration of Independence forced the adoption of a single American flag which symbolized the desired unity of the fledging American colonies.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-adopts-the-stars-and-stripes
The Flag Resolution of 1777, states: “The flag of the United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, with a union of thirteen stars of white on a blue field ….” Although many believe that Betsy Ross designed and sewed the first American flag, unfortunately there is no definitive proof of this assumption.
The 1777 flag was designed to represent the 13 original colonies. It had 13 white stars on a blue field and 13 alternating red and white stripes. In 1818, after a few design changes, the United States Congress decided to retain the flag’s original 13 stripes and add new stars to reflect each new state that entered the union. Each time a state was added to the union, a star was added. Today, there are 50 stars, one for each state in the union, but the 13 stripes remain.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-adopts-the-great-seal-of-the-united-states
The Continental Congress left no record as to why it chose these colors. However, in 1782, Congress in the Articles of Confederation chose the colors for the Great Seal of the United States with these meanings: white for purity and innocence; red for valor and hardiness; and blue for vigilance, perseverance, and justice.
We all know that the individual stars on a field of blue represents the fifty states that comprise our nation. Perhaps not known is that since our founding over one million service men and women have fallen in battle for the cause of freedom. This equates to roughly 200,000 deaths for every star on our flag – indeed a heavy price that was paid. As a veteran, on Flag Day I often look past those white stars and instead see the faces of the fallen – several of them my former comrades-in-arms. They ask was my death was in vain? I whisper “no” you died for a noble cause and your legacy endures to this day through the freedom we as Americans enjoy.
In the movie “Saving Private Ryan” Tom Hanks with his dying breath ordered the young Private Ryan to “earn this” for the rest of his life. On Flag Day as Americans, we should continue to “earn this” – the privilege to live in a free America because our freedom was paid for by those veterans forever enshrined by fifty stars on a field of blue. Let their deaths not be in vain and may we remember their sacrifice on the day we honor the flag that was paid for with their blood – earn this America!
