Remembering Francis Bellamy

From the Wikipedia:

The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by Francis Bellamy (1855–1931), who was a Baptist minister, a Christian socialist, and the cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy (1850–1898). The original “Pledge of Allegiance” was published in the September 8 issue of the popular children’s magazine The Youth’s Companion as part of the National Public-School Celebration of Columbus Day, a celebration of the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas.

Initially, it went like this: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Burn that flag

One of the things I loved as a kid were flags. I decided that the US flag was one of the best, design-wise. You have your red, white and blue, the colors of both England, with whom we fought for independence, and France, who helped us achieve it. (Thanks, Lafayette.) After adding a star and a stripe for each state entering the union, someone figured out that we’d better stick to the 13 stripes and merely alter the number of stars.

But it is clear that not many folks have read Title 4, Chapter 1 of the United States Code

Let's party like it's 1812!

In 1976, there was this big bicentennial celebration of the United States’ Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. Currently, the country is in the midst of the sesquicentennial of various events during the American Civil War.

But what is being planned for the bicentennial of the War of 1812, which started on June 18? I’ve heard nothing, quite possibly because almost no American understands exactly what the heck it was all about.

Drop a Flag on that Barkeep

When I went to that conference I mentioned, there was some free time on the first two evenings. So I went to the bar to get a glass of wine. Somehow neither of the bartender’s saw me initially, and I waited a bit longer than I should have, but eventually got served.

This sent me to a flashback to June 14, 1991. My Significant Other and I were in Boston to visit her mother and her brother. For reasons too complicated to describe here, we couldn’t stay at their house, but had to stay at a hotel.

Since we were in town, we decided to see if, somehow, there were tickets to that night’s Red Sox-California Angels game. We seriously doubted it; Roger Clemens, the Red Sox ace hurler was on the mound against the one-handed pitching phenom Jim Abbott. Somehow, there were not only seats available, but we got to sit right behind home plate!

The game itself,

Flag Day QUESTIONS

Just in time for Flag Day.

I saw some poll (which, of course, I cannot locate currently) which asked people if they fly the American flag on certain occasions (Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, et al.). The results were 56-44 in the affirmative. What was surprising to me was that there was zero percent “don’t know/undecided” which always shows up in these things; maybe the pollsters attribute the non-responses to the yes/no responses.

I have no tradition of flying the flag. My parents didn’t when I was growing up, though I did note one at my mother’s house in recent years. Whereas my wife’s family put out their flag all the time.

I think part of my feeling about the flag derived from the Vietnam war era, where people who loved their country but opposed its war were told to “love it or leave it.” Well, I did/do love it, but never thought blind obedience to its activities was the right way to love. Would a parent show love for its child by agreeing to ice cream with every meal? But the “love or leave it” crowd seemed to, quite literally, be the flag wavers, seemingly leaving no room for dissent.

I was fascinated by a recent story in the local paper which seems to touch on my feelings:
VETS FOR PEACE SAY THE FLAG IS THEIRS, TOO
Elks lodge says group can’t march as themselves in June 19 parade

DENNIS YUSKO, STAFF WRITER
Date: Saturday, June 5, 2010

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A local Elks lodge’s decision to ban Veterans For Peace from identifying themselves in the city’s annual Flag Day Parade has some Saratoga County vets asking to whom the American flag belongs.

The Saratoga-Wilton Elks Lodge 161 will not allow members of VFP’s Saratoga Springs-Adirondack Chapter 147 to carry the banners or wear shirts with the group’s name in the June 19 parade. Members of the veterans peace group who wish to march in the parade would have to do so under flags of other veterans organizations, like Veterans of Foreign Wars or the American Legion.

“If you want to protest the flag, you have 364 days a year to do it,” said Kenneth Tubbs, parade organizer and lecturing knight at the Elks lodge.

And I have to wonder, as the local paper’s editorial asks, how is supporting peace “protesting the flag”?

I was in a Bible study this past year, and someone of my “liberal” theological persuasion talked about how the liberal church should “reclaim the flag.” I think I’m wary of mixing church and state, not just in the American tradition of separating those, but from the whole historic sense of the church becoming co-opted by the state – “divine right of kings,” and the like.

The flag circa 1865-66, after Nevada, and before Nebraska became states.

All this said, I really like the United States flag. I like how it tells a story in its 13 stripes and 50 stars. I like how it got up to 15 stripes, and somebody said, “Nope, this isn’t going to work.” I like how the US Code has specific rules for how the stars would line up if we got more states. And I get testy when the flag is ill-used, especially by those who choose to honor it, yet fly some raggedy old thing, about which I’ve written before.

And I’m fascinated how the Daughter is excited about “America’s birthday” next month. She LOVES the flag, and I’ll do nothing to dissuade her.

All this to ask:
1. Do you own a flag of your country? (If you’re not from the US, please note.) I do own some small flags.
2. When, if ever, do you fly it? Here are the recommended days in the US. EASTER? I had no idea, and find that mildly disturbing.