A Flags View

 

 



 

 

Hello. I am a flag. No not just any flag, I am a symbol of freedom. I am 242 years old and I have the rips and tattered edges to prove it. I have flown over countries all over the world. I fly proudly on foreign shores over the graves of the brave men who fought and died for me.

I survived the revolution where I was born and a bloody Civil war, where in 1863 it was brother against brother. In some circles there are still repercussions felt from this bloody time in my history. I pray that it never happens again, but there are familiar whispers today. I flew over battles in “The war to end all wars” in 1918. My people fought and died in the European trenches where over 116,000 men lost their lives in the fight for freedom.

When the war was over my country had prosperity in the roaring twenties. That is until 1929 and the crash of the stock market. My people were in for ten long years of hard times. But my people are tough and resilient and made it through.

I was flying over the Pacific fleet on that clear morning of December 7^th, 1941. On this “day that will live in infamy,” my Navy was attacked by Japan. I would once again fly into battle. Boys as young as seventeen were enlisting to fight the Axis powers of Germany, Japan and Italy.

While I was ripped, dropped, shot and bloodied and battered I survived the battles on the Pacific Islands. Guadalcanal, Okinawa and I was raised on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima. I was flying high when the kamikazes slammed into my ships where I went to the bottom with some ships. On the other side of the world I was in the English Channel when the Ailed forces landed on Normandy. It was the largest amphibian invasion in history. The war ended in September 1945.

The men and women who served returned home to a hero’s welcome.

The country was united and prosperous, through out the 1950’s, ‘60’s and early 1970’s. but it wasn’t long before I was back on the battle field. First in Korea where over 33,000 men and women never made it home and then in Viet Nam. I was flying high in Viet Nam, but the public was against the war. When my troops came home they were spit on and called names. It was a disgrace to those brave men and women who went and fought for the freedoms the protesters were enjoying. I fly over a great nation and even though it was 20 years too late, our Viet Nam vets now get the respect they deserve.

In the mid 1970’s we had the oil embargo, long gas lines, the impending ice age and our bicentennial. On November 4^th, 1979 the Iran Hostage crisis started. These hostages were held for a total of 444 days and released on January 21^st, 1981. In the 1980’s we had prosperity and “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.” Our economy continued to grow into the 1990’s and into the early 2000’s.

Then came that September day. Tuesday September 11^th, 2001 when almost 3000 people lost their lives in one attack on my land. The people of this country were united like never before. Then we hit back. Seventeen years later we are still fighting this enemy known as radical Islam. I am still flying high and we are winning this war.

In the 2010’s my people started to become more and more divided along racial, economic and political lines. We are more divided now than ever in my history. Some of todays young people protest me. They spit on me, burn and trample me, because they don’t like what I stand for. Don’t they understand that half a world away they have counterparts who are putting their lives on the line for me?  So that they have the right to dishonor me. My history isn’t being taught in their schools like it was fifty years ago. If a generation isn’t told about their history and culture, then it is lost forever.

Yes, people hate me around the world and right here at home for what I stand for. But without me, my beliefs and my people the world would be a much different place. It wouldn’t be as free or as safe. No, we haven’t done this alone, but when we lead the world wins.

Today things are looking brighter. My economy is booming and jobs are coming back across the board.

Yes, I am a flag, but not just any flag. When I wave in the breeze you see seven red stripes, six white strips and a field of blue filled with fifty stars. I am proud to be the flag of the United States of America!