CELEBRATE FLAG DAY ON JUNE 14TH!
On Father's Day, Let's Not Forget
"The Forgotten Holiday"
"Our flag means all that our fathers meant in the Revolutionary War. It means all that the Declaration of Independence meant. It means justice. It means liberty. It means happiness.... Every color means liberty. Every thread means liberty. Every star and stripe means liberty." ~Henry Ward Beecher
JOIN THE CELEBRATION, HONOR THE FLAG...
The week of June 14 is designated as "National Flag Week." During National Flag Week, the president will issue a proclamation urging U.S. citizens to fly the American flag for the duration of that week. The flag should also be displayed on all Government buildings. Some organizations hold parades and events in celebration of America's national flag and everything it represents.
Here in the 50th state of Hawaii it is especially important, in this outpost of liberty, democracy, constitutional freedoms and prosperity that we proudly honor the flag and everything for which it stands. Let us all take this week to show how proud, and fortunate, we are all to be Americans. We are blessed to live in a place so rich in climate and natural beauty... so graced by loving and tolerant people... and so favored as to enjoy the constitutionally protected freedom and liberty of Americans.
There truly is no finer place on earth. And no greater blessing than to be a part of the United States.
June 14th is Flag Day. A day too few of us remember, it commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened that day by resolution of the Second Continental Congress in 1777. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, an Act of Congress established National Flag Day.
"One flag, one land, one heart, one hand, One Nation, evermore!" - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Flag Day is not an official federal holiday. Father's Day will gain all the public attention, the retail push, the media minutes and emotions. But Flag Day is and should be important. The Flag... Our Flag... is the most well known symbol of the very best things America stands for and has stood for throughout its history. It is the symbol of Freedom... a freedom we take all too much for granted, yet a freedom that is envied and treasured throughout the world. Quite literally millions of people around the globe will risk their lives, their families, their futures... will risk everything to live under Our Flag. Those beautiful stars and stripes are the proudly flying symbol of hope for the entire world. And the symbol to which we all pledge allegiance with a unique pride only we can feel as Americans.
"It is the flag just as much of the man who was naturalized yesterday as of the man whose people have been here many generations." - Henry Cabot Lodge.
Fly the Flag this week. Honor the Flag. And when you pass those wonderful Stars and Stripes fluttering in the island breezes, stop, give a salute, and say a prayer of thanks for all that it represents. This is Our Flag, fly it proudly.
"We have room in this country for but one flag, the Stars and Stripes.... We have room for but one loyalty, loyalty to the United States...." - Theodore Roosevelt.
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