Flag Day

In the small town of Fredonia,, Wisconsin - not far from the Lake Michigan coastline in Ozaukee County north of Milwaukee - is where the first known observance of Flag Day happened.  In 1885.

School teacher BJ Cigrand had her students observe the anniversary of the official adoption of the Stars and Stripes on June 14.  In talks, newspaper articles, and magazines over the years - she continued advocate the day as Flag Birthday or Flag Day.

Other teachers and the Society of the Sons of the Revolution took up the cause until 1916 (98 years ago) when President Woodrow Wilson officially established the anniversary of the 1777 Flag Resolution, and President Truman made the 14th of June official in 1949.

It's a quiet holiday - no day off work or big parades are generally planned - but it's a good time to pause and pick up your Stars and Stripes and put it up today.

I think flying the flag is a bit more common than it used to be, probably a result of the wars our country has been part of through the last decade plus.  It's good to fly the flag - in honor of friends and family who served or are serving our country or to show your pride in being a citizen of this country.

The best way to talk about the flag today is with the flag's own words - as the United States Secretary of the Interior Franklin Lane said 100 years ago, "I am what you make me, nothing more.  I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of yourself."