Flag: More than just cloth and color

Today marks the 234th anniversary of the day when the Continental Congress of these emerging United States adopted the "Flag Resolution" and officially approved the basic design of our National Flag. The victory of the Revolutionary War had not yet been earned, and some skeptics no doubt commented negatively on the brazen folly of such hope in a positive outcome. Yet as we review and look beyond the history of our Flag's "development of celebration" from its humble beginnings in 1777 to President Truman's 1949 signing of the act of Congress making June 14 our official "Flag Day," we see that our Stars and Stripes is so much more than a pretty collection of cloth and color.

Those brazen and bold hopes of 1777 have flowered into realities of liberty that were only faintly imagined in a world where societies were mainly structured on the basis of class and heredity. Over time the Flag has come to represent an encyclopedia of ideals and events suggesting that societies are best structured on the spiritual belief in the dignity and worth of each person, no matter their condition or background or "position" along the journey of life, and deriving from a divine rather than social heritage. Our American Heroes have fought countess wars, and multitudes have given their lives in defense of these ideals, so that others, including ourselves in these times, may continue to live free.

In history there have always been challenges to the ideals of freedom, sometimes from a more external source and sometimes more internally but always from some combination of the two. As technology continues to shrink the size or our world and the distance lessens between societies and their structural values which may be in stark competition, the variety and strength of these challenges will continue to mount. Additionally, governmental vacuums in other parts of the world invite competitions where the attractions of power over persons become stronger, with outcomes unclear and further increasing the challenges to freedom.

Given this mix of circumstances in our world and our society's own internal struggles over social values and the "morals" of our "politics," it is all the more important to strengthen internally the invisible values represented by the Flag. These values include personal responsibility and the welcoming of diversity as an enriching and strengthening resource. The foundational ideals of our nation have always cherished the support of personal possibilities and the welcoming of "difference" and "other" as the fertile foundations for positive relationships and the development of fresh horizons. Fidelity to these ideals helps to support inner strength and has been one of the foundational reasons for our Nation's abundant invisible and visible wealth. The Flag is meant to represent these ideals and has been an inspiration for super human sacrifice as well as a beacon of hope for so many around the world who yearn to be, or to remain free.

In another sense our Flag represents boundaries and borders, a statement and promise that there exists on the Earth an actual space and place where dwells a society based on these invisible principles of intrinsic personal worth, personal possibility, responsibility and an open welcome to all who would aspire to the same. And not unrelated to our Flag as a national symbol for invisible meanings is our famous Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. A gift from the people of France to commemorate the American/French alliance of the Revolutionary War, it was given as a present in honor of our nation's 100th anniversary. This "Goddess of Liberty Enlightening the World" stands tall at the very entrance to our land. She lifts high her bright torch of freedom in welcome to anyone of any circumstance who truly "yearns to breathe free."

Our Flag represents all of these values as well as a long history of sacrifice in their service. As we carry the Flag and fly the Flag and post the Flag in so many places in these United States and in so many places around the world, it is good to remember that it represents first of all a commitment to a system of invisible principles. And that it is these principles that have given rise to a visible land with borders and boundaries that are meant to be as much a promise for those who would hope to be truly free as a barrier against those who would seek to enslave.

Flag Day is one of those opportune times in our national calendar to recommit ourselves to an inner renewal toward a deeper recognition of the promise of "difference" and personal possibility framed in the conviction that each person is a unique and unrepeatable "refraction" of the one light of God. The "song" of our Flag is not unlike the sonnet by Emma Lazarus engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty which ends with saying ". . .Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free ... Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

William Green is a Coeur d'Alene resident.