ANDREWS AFB, Md. –
Americans love their flag.
On Flag Day, we are not honoring only the flag, but what it symbolizes. We are honoring freedom. We are honoring the freedom to worship as we please, to speak as we please and to vote as we please. We are honoring the hardworking men and women who have made this the greatest and most successful country that the planet has ever known. Flag Day is America's Day.
The 13 stripes on our flag are not just symbolic of the original colonies but they are symbolic of the founding fathers who hailed from those colonies. They are symbolic of their dreams for a great Republic, dreams that have been forged into reality by all the men and women who have defended this great nation.
George Washington once said of the original Flag, "We take the stars from Heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty."
The United States Flag is the embodiment of our Constitution that proclaims our absolute commitment to defending the freedoms given to us by our Creator.
President Coolidge may have been known as "Silent Cal," but he had plenty to say about our Flag.
"We do honor the Stars and Stripes as the emblem of our country and the symbol of all that our patriotism means," President Coolidge said.
"We identify the flag with almost everything we hold dear on earth. It represents our peace and security, our civil and political liberty, our freedom of religious worship, our family, our friends, our home. We see it in the great multitude of blessings, of rights and privileges that make up our country. But when we look at our flag, and behold it emblazoned with all our rights, we must remember that it is equally a symbol of our duties. Every glory that we associate with it is the result of duty done. A yearly contemplation of our flag strengthens and purifies the national conscience."