History of the Flag, Part 7 Martin Link

HISTORY OF THE FLAG PART 7

By Martin Link

As I am now about to conclude my history of our Country’s flag, I would like to thank the many people in the Gallup community who, over the past six months have complimented or commented on the articles. People I’ve met at the Senior Citizen Center, Vets Helping Vets, the Plateau Sciences Society, or just on a shopping trip, have taken the time to explain what the flag has always meant to them and their family.

This experience reminds me of a situation reflected in the June 13, 2010, issue of the comic strip “Beetle Bailey,” when Beetle’s friend, Plato, inscribed his feelings on “a nice empty wall just waiting to be used.” Even Gen. Halftrack applauded the script — “THIS FLAG — This flag...the symbol of the hopes of man. This cloth of dreams for Freedom, Justice, and Opportunity. Its stars are like beacons guiding us through the shoals of adversity. Its red stripes like wounds of struggle. The good in it cannot be had for nothing...like any garden, it must be tended... like any loved one, it must be held. Hold this flag high and keep its promise bright, for in it lies the best hope for all of us.”

I also want to thank the staff of the Gallup Journey for providing two pages each month for my articles. And, in summary, one final comment: Thus, the Stars and Stripes came into being; born amid the strife of battle, it has become the standard around which a free people have struggled to establish and maintain a great nation.

A Day for the Flag

On Monday, November 11th, the community of Gallup celebrated the annual national holiday, originally set aside to remember the end of World War I (Armistice Day), but now to encourage all the citizens to honor all Americans who have served their Country through participation in the Armed Forces — Veterans Day. The morning began with ceremonies at the Veterans Cemetery, followed by a parade on Aztec Ave. east to the County Courthouse plaza where a program was held, recognizing the living veterans of McKinley County.

Throughout all the festivities the American flag was prominently and proudly displayed. Small flags, 12” by 17”on a 30” pole were distributed by the Cope Memorial Chapel. The kids, especially, accepted the free flags, and, for the most part, treated the banner with the respect and proper display it is entitled to.

But I wonder how many kids, as well as adults, actually realize that our Stars and Stripes is the third oldest national flag in the world. Although the number of stars has changed over its 252-year history, the basic design has been around for a long time. Denmark’s flag is the oldest, dating back to 1219 A.D. during the reign of King Valdemar, but many other countries are like Germany, which has had three different flags just during the past 100 years. France’s flag dates to the time of Napoleon, and Great Britain combined the flags of England and Scotland into the “Union Jack” in 1807. Russia, China, and all the other communist countries have changed their flags since the end of World War II. Not a single country in South America has a flag that pre-dates 1820. Canada and Australia changed theirs in the 1950s.

It was kind of evident, though, that the participants at last Monday’s Veterans Day had become too complacent toward our flag, and taken our freedoms and way-of-life for granted.

With world affairs what they are, it might be fitting that we rekindle in ourselves and in our communities the spiritual and ethical values that have made this country the most powerful nation on earth, and re-establish a respect and loyalty to the flag that is the symbol of our national unity.

In conclusion of this series, I would like to quote President Woodrow Wilson in 1917, as our country became actively involved in World War I. He officially recognized June 14th as National Flag Day. In his remarks, he said, “This flag, which we honor and under which we serve, is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us — speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us, and of the records they wrote upon it.”

The 49 Star Flag

After nearly 48 years, the 48-star flag was replaced with a 49-star design (seven rows of seven stars each), brought about by the admission of the Territory of Alaska in 1959. This set the precedent of admitting non-contiguous territories to the Union.

Alaska is about as far north and west as one can get on the North American Continent, and is just a few miles from Siberia/Russia. Russian fur-trappers had occupied the region and the west coast down to California for over 100 years before the U.S. Government purchased Russia’s holdings on June 30, 1867.

The purchase met with a lot of opposition until gold was discovered in the Yukon Basin in the 1890s.

An unanswered question pondered by historians and politicians is, would the outcome of the Cold War with Russia/ Soviet Union have been different if Alaska had remained under Russian control?

The 50 Star Flag

Only a year later, in 1960, did Congress admit the mid-Pacific cluster of islands, known as Hawaii, to the Union, and the 50-star design has been in place ever since.

During the past 60 years, this flag has witnessed the dawn of the Atomic Age, has triumphed over the Cold War, has been draped over the caskets of fallen leaders such as John Kennedy,

Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr., has been defiled and burned in Iran, and the streets of Bagdad, and has been planted by our Astronauts on the Sea of Tranquility on the Moon.

Over the years there was still the possibility of adding five more stars to our “new constellation.” Of the fourteen territories, mostly acquired during the Spanish-American War of 1898, five of them are inhabited: Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa.

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