Enjoy the Holiday!
Well, it’s June 14. And I think you know what that means.
My father was born on June 14, 1922. His parents gave him the middle name Flagg, because June 14 is Flag Day! For some historical background (Wikipedia, of course), the Second Continental Congress adopted the then limited stars and stripes on June 14,1777. Flag Day was first proposed to rally the Union in 1861, Woodrow Wilson in 1916 issued a presidential proclamation designating June 14 as Flag Day. On August 3, 1949, Congress established June 14 as a National Flag Day. Flag Day is not an official holiday, and federal law leaves it to the president to officially proclaim the observance. My paternal grandfather came to this country from the Ukraine probably in the first or second decade of the 20th C. My paternal grandmother was born in NYC, but I don’t know when. It is entirely unlikely that they thought Wilson’s proclamation of June 14 as Flag Day (it had already been considered some version of Flag Day in the 1770s and in 1861) had anything to do with my father.
It’s the middle of June, and wherever in this country you are, you might be planning a cookout. Have a great time with your family and/or friends.
Or you might well also be planning to go to a No Kings event in your area. I was at the first two, both in downtown Miami, and if I can find one that’s easy enough to get to, I’ll go again. I didn’t make it to the third one, because the people I was supposed to go with dropped out, and parking was going to be difficult at either of the two closest ones to me. Neither was in downtown Miami. I don’t know why, but something tells me there’s going to be loads of enthusiasm today. And it won’t have anything to do with my father, who died at the end of 2016. Nor will it have anything to do with Flag Day. We all knew why my father’s middle name was Flagg, and that he happened to have been born on Flag Day, but he never acted like he was the Homecoming Prince or Princess. Imagine someone like that.
Well, anyway, have a very good Flag Day. Eat up a storm, and maybe march around complaining about the government. They must have done something worth complaining about. And if you feel uneasy or self-conscious about it, remember that that’s precisely what the United States’ Founding Fathers would want you to do. They wrote a Constitution making clear how this country is supposed to function, and reassuring you that you have EVERY RIGHT to complain, if it doesn’t function as it’s supposed to, or to say anything you want.
Remind yourselves. Bring an American flag. It’s FLAG DAY!