by Alice Grey

Created on: June 15, 2008

On visiting America for the first time, I was instantly struck by the unabashed prominence of the American Flag. Driving along the leafy cul-de-sac's of Pasadena's more affluent neighborhoods, traversing treacherous traffic along Sunset Boulevard or even still, roaring along the Interstate, there it was in one form or another; the 'Star-Spangled Banner' displayed in all its magnificence.

At first, such a conspicuous display of raw patriotism filled me with unease. The innate and fervid national identity shared by every American citizen had yet to become apparent to me and was a sentiment wholly unfamiliar to my own experience. I come from a land torn apart by violence and strife, a place where neighbors murder each other at the slightest provocation and where poverty walks hand in hand with corruption and greed. So you see, it is very seldom that ordinary citizens feel compelled to display their national flag with a sense of pride or patriotism.

Despite my distaste for the politics of the day and the general state of the world as it presently run, it did not take long before I found myself approaching the American Flag with a degree of reverence and pride deserving of such a symbol. This surprised me as I had never before felt such heartfelt emotion over something essentially iconic.

While novel for me, this sentiment is precisely the nature and purpose of any National Flag and is evidenced no more so than in America's 'Stars and Stripes'. When a 19 year old school teacher named Bernard John Cigrand, in Waubeka Wisconsin, placed a 10" 38 star American Flag into the inkwell of a desk and instructed his pupils to write an essay on what the Flag meant to them he understood, as early as 1885, that the American Flag constituted more than a mere symbolic emblem or official icon. He realized that it gave tangible representation to the evolution and establishment of a nation procured through fortitude, hardship, perseverance, loyalty and acts of extreme bravery.

This young teacher, in encouraging his pupils to personally identify with the attributes and associations ascribed to the Flag's ideology, sought to instill within them a solid moral and ethical platform based upon the principles represented by this ideology. Cigrand's passion for his country's Flag and all that it embodied did not curb with his student's project. Rather, he became impassioned by the idea of dedicating a day to the country's Flag. He adopted June 14, as the day for which annual observance of the

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>