Speech prepared for the Benevolent Paternal Order of Elks Flag Day Ceremony
Freehold, New Jersey
June 13, 1982
We all remember what the colors of the American flag once were said to mean. Every year, our teachers explained that red stood for the blood of patriotic Americans who sacrifice their lives in the struggle for independence; white stood for purity, blue for justice and devotion. We were told that George Washington himself set down the meaning of the red, white, and blue, shortly after our country’s birth.
Today, historians insist that the story is only a story, a myth. George Washington really said nothing about the meaning of our flag–no more than he chopped down a cherry tree or spent time in the thousand places that now claim, “George Washington slept here.” As for the colors of our flag, they came from the British flag. The American colonists wanted to claim, as they did in the Declaration of Independence, that they were the ones who were true patriots devoted to the ideals of Britain, that George III was the rebel, the one who wilfully violated the right of Englishmen overseas, provoking patriotic resistance. The thirteen stripes symbolized the unity, but also the independence, of each American colony: a unity in resistance to what the Declaration calls the King’s attempt to impose “an absolute tyranny over these states.”
That is what historians tell us, and I have no reason to doubt their research, as far as it goes. Historians love to debunk myths, and we shouldn’t deny them their favorite recreation. But most of us are not historians, and when someone erases our flag’s meaning, we wonder how we can replace, and with what.
Fortunately, we are Americans, and Americans are lucky. The United States Congress implied as much when they described our flag’s “thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” Throughout recorded history, constellations have symbolized destiny arranged by the power of Heaven. In associating our states with a constellation, the American founders expressed their hope that fortune would be on our side, and when it comes to recovering the meaning of our flag, it is.
I say that because historical research also tells us that the red, white, and blue of the British flag have traditional, symbolic meanings much like those we once ascribed to the same colors on ours. If the founders merely imitated the flag of their old homeland, their imitation was a lucky one. Traditionally, red does stand for the courage and sacrifice that sometimes means shedding blood so that our country can live. Today, as much as ever, in a world that still has not won freedom from fear courage is our country’s life-blood.
Traditionally, white does stand for purity, and also for the wisdom that comes to those who defend it, which resist the many things that corrupt. Wisdom rests on the moderation of men and women who both understand and withstand the liberty Americans enjoy. Today, as much as ever.
Finally, blue does stand for justice, and for devotion. We still hear the expression `true blue,’ and we associate blue with the sky–that is, in symbolic terms, with Heaven, the traditional source of the justice that commands our devotion.
All of these colors, and their meanings, reinforce one another. Courage without wisdom, moderation, and justice does not know what to defend. Wisdom, moderation, and justice without courage cannot defend themselves. The American founders knew that, and their lives proved it. If they really did adopt red, white, and blue without knowing what those colors symbolize, they accidentally affirmed the virtues that formed the constellation of their own excellence. And that excellence helped to assure the destiny of these united states, the “new constellation” in world politics.
New Jersey’s only president, Woodrow Wilson, wrote: “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 choice is ours.” As we have seen, Wilson was wrong. Our flag does represent a constellation of meanings beyond whatever meaning one generation may try to give it. Its meaning was given to us. The purpose of our political union was to secure our unalienable right, endowed to all human beings by their Creator. We can choose to defend the republic for which our flag stands, we can choose to make its intended purpose and meaning our own. We can also reject that original purpose, as Wilson wants us to do, give it some new character.
Each generation of Americans must choose to accept or reject the courage, wisdom, moderation, and justice seen in the character of the American founders, given political form in the Constitution they designed and symbolized in our national life by our flag. It is a choice that no one makes only `once and for all.’ In each life, each of us chooses, many times. If enough of us make the right choices, this union of states will endure in liberty. I hope that we will make those choices. By coming here today, you tell me that you share this hope, beneath the American flag.
2016 NOTE: I wrote this talk for New Jersey State Senator Thomas Gagliano. He had me re-write it and he delivered the new version. This one was never delivered.
Recent Comments