Our View: Our national symbol should be celebrated

With all of the discourse over the Confederate flag, today let us pause to pay tribute to another banner that flies proudly over our homes and businesses as we celebrate the 239th anniversary of the birth of our nation.

First let us indulge in a little history about our nation's flag, courtesy of the National Flag Day Foundation. "The 'Stars and Stripes,' the official national symbol of the United States of America, was authorized by Congress on that Saturday of June 14, 1777, in the fifth item of the day's agenda. The entry in the journal of the Continental Congress 1774-1789 Vol. Vlll 1777 reads 'Resolved that the flag of the 13 United States be 13 stripes alternate red and white: that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.'"

That symbol of freedom has flown in different forms over battlefields and cemeteries, on foreign soil and our homeland, and been held in reverence and disdain in nearly equal measure. Some scenes, such as its raising over Mount Suribachi during World War II and being draped over the wall of the Pentagon following 9/11, are forever ingrained in our memories.

But it is the flag that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore on Sept. 14, 1814, that forever burned "The Star-Spangled Banner" into our collective hearts, in sight and in song.

We are puzzled at times over why so many people seem to insist that we replace that anthem -- admittedly difficult to sing, for some -- with "God Bless America" or similarly themed patriotic tunes. With deference to the detractors, nothing was more stirring to the soul than to hear a hockey arena filled with Bostonians in the days following the terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon raising their voices as one to sing, a cappella, Francis Scott Key's lines of "broad stripes and bright stars."

As the Smithsonian, home to the original "Star-Spangled Banner" on display in Washington, D.C., says on its website, "Key's words gave new significance to a national symbol and started a tradition through which generations of Americans have invested the flag with their own meanings and memories."

As we celebrate the anniversary of our nation's independence today, perhaps it is time we set aside our differences of opinion about a divisive period in our nation's history, and proudly display an enduring symbol of our heritage and our commitment to freedom for all.

Editorial on 07/04/2015

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