AM~Erica Thanks Betsy Ross

So anyway...

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

Have you ever stopped to realize that our American national anthem is not about our great country, but about the very symbol that represents it? That's right! "The Star Spangled Banner" is about the stars & stripes on the red, white & blue combination of fabric that forms our very flag. The song is about how it withstood major damage all around it, but it kept flying despite the war around it.

Today is Flag Day. It was put in place to celebrate the birthday of this flag that was created by Betsy Ross. I'm betting she never really imagined that her creation would be adopted, revered & have a song written about it's power to be adopted to represent the land it was created for. That's pretty amazing.

So, today, we celebrate the flag. And we should fully embrace our national anthem, too.

We celebrate the blue field with a star for every state of the United States to "form a new constellation". The stripes that represent the original colonies & the red stripes that represent the bloodshed to fight for this great country. It's a wonderfully & beautifully symbolic of tradition. And it still stands.

However...as many other things in this day & age, it is not as revered as it should be. It is disrespected in so many ways. The age-old practice of removing hats out of respect has lessened. And the freedom to burn the flag was going wild for quite a while. Thankfully, I don't hear about those instances anymore...but the flag also represents our freedom to do those things, even the sad disrespect. We drag it on the ground & stomp on it, too. Sad? Oh, I think so.

And, as Betsy's creation has it's 235th birthday today (as we all have a birthday), each flag that is worn, tattered, or even hits the ground is supposed to go thru it's own ceremony, a burial, much like a funeral. It lives to represent us with bold color & it dies in the same representation.

So, remember what we celebrate today. Much like knowing what Memorial Day is about, as well as Independence Day. Focus on what we are proud to have as a symbol.

Thank you, Betsy Ross, for bringing the flag into this world to represent a wonderful country.

Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Stay tuned...

God Bless, AM~Erica