You’re A Grand Old Flag
Today, June 14th, is Flag Day in this country. Our KXEL Poll Question of the Day today is again tied to the day; weigh in at kxel.com/poll as you have time.
June 14 has been Flag Day ever since 1916, when President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation, urging Americans to show “significant expression to our thoughtful love of America”. At that time we had 48 states, but three of them had joined since the turn of the century…so the “48-star flag” was still new.
Why June 14? Because it was on that date in 1777 that the first American flag was adopted, by order of the Second Continental Congress, which passed the flag act.
“Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.”–that’s from the official record of the session. So from the start, the concept was a union, represented by stars in a blue field, but also with strong individual states, represented by separate stripes.
As a FoxNews.com story notes, there have been 27 official versions of the American flag, as states were added. The last change was in 1959, when Hawaii was added as the 50th state.
The Flag Manufacturers Association of America estimates that 150 million American flags are sold each year. But a poll shows that barely a majority of us–51 percent–have an American flag in our home.
Still time to get one, and with pride, fly it high on this 106th American “Flag Day”.
