Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 9, 1995 TAG: 9508090031
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARY BURNETT HATCH
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Who are you, anyway? What "freedom of your expression" outweighs the strength and courage hidden in those 13 red and white stripes - one, you should know, for each of the original 13 colonies that melded together to form this great country of ours.
Were you at Betsy's knee as she sewed the blood and courage together? Have you no knowledge of Revere, Saratoga, Lexington, Concord, Valley Forge? And what of Custer, the Alamo, Stonewall or Appomattox? Were you with Francis Scott Key when he awoke that morning to see at dawn's early light our star-spangled banner waving bravely in the breeze?
Step from behind your facade of "freedom of expression." Face up to the blood and guts this tricolored piece of cloth has endured. Were you at Iwo Jima with those weary Marines who lifted our star-studded beauty from where it had fallen, to place her straight up to gallantly face the enemy? Were you in Marseille, Bataan, Corregidor? Or at that beach in Normandy? Did you crawl on your belly through the jungles of Korea and Vietnam? Or watch the smoke fill the skies at the Gulf?
And what of those 50 stars on that field of blue? Have you no conception of what it took to place each one there with the others? Man alone could not have done it. Thank God for his assistance!
No, you were not there those many years ago when reveille interrupted disturbed dreams, calling muster for the 5 a.m. drill. Did you march with misty eyes of sleep to halt at rapt attention, seeing - much as Francis Scott Key must have seen with the first light of day - our Grand Old Flag hoisted up its staff? Rising slowly at first. Faster as it reached its apex. Then suddenly bursting forth in a swirl of red, white and blue, buffeted about with the break of a new day, letting us know all was well!
Express your dissatisfaction, disgust, apprehension - yes, even fear - in the many ways our freedom permits. But make your "political statement" directly to those men and women nesting in that great white-domed building "inside the beltway" in our nation's capital, Washington, D.C.
But, and I beg you, do not show your frustration by kicking the symbol of all that my forebears fought to preserve for me, and to let you share. This banner has my steadfast allegiance. If liberty and justice seem lacking to you, do not destroy my flag. Blame yourself for those you choose to govern.
Don't touch my flag, except to do so with the reverence and respect it deserves.
Did I hear a blare of bugles and a roll of drums? Yes, down the street she proudly comes. Hats off and at attention stand. Our American flag passes ever so grand!
Mary Burnett Hatch of Roanoke is regent of the Margaret Lynn Lewis Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
by CNB