VETERANS PRESS: Rest in peace Old Glory
From left: Ruth Aresvik, Shawn Montee, Helen Kinder, Michael Montee and Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris.
Courtesy photo
Every day is a good day to fly an American flag. But on Friday, June 14, hundreds of worn, torn and tattered flags were retired in an honorable Flag Day ceremony at the Rathdrum Lions Club. Manuel Schneidmiller American Legion Post No. 154 conducted the event.
After the presentation of the Colors, 1st Vice Commander Ruth Aresvik, Committee Member Bill Kinder and Chaplain Helen Kinder led the program and inspected the unserviceable flags. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Legion members participated by carrying folded flags as well as leading the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. Michael and Shawn Montee, grandsons of Bill and Helen Kinder, were caretakers of the flame in lighting the flags.
“A flag may be a flimsy bit of printed gauze, or a beautiful banner of finest silk,” Aresvik said. “…but it’s real value is beyond price, for it is a precious symbol of all that we and our comrades have worked for, lived for, and died for — a free nation of free men and women true to the faith of the past, devoted to the ideals and practices of justice, freedom and democracy.”
In the United States, Flag Day is celebrated on June 14. It commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day.
The ceremony concluded with a prayer and the bugler sounding “To the Colors.” This honorable event is a reminder to all the proper way to respectfully retire Old Glory. Etiquette, rules and guidelines can be found by visiting the U.S. Flag Code website at https://www.legion.org/flag/code.