A look back at what American flag really means — 50 years ago and now

Editor’s note: This editorial by editor Alan C. McIntosh first appeared in the Nov. 9, 1967, edition of the Rock County Star Herald. It was reprinted in the Feb. 27, 1969, edition after it had received the George Washington Honor Medal Award of Freedoms Foundation.
 
‘Just a Rag’
“I am the American flag.
“Most of the time they call me ‘Old Glory.’
Which is ridiculous. I can’t regard myself as outdated and useless ... as an old antique. I think of myself as ever young. I keep up with the times. As proof, look at those two new stars proudly emblazoned on me ... keeping up with the 48 I have worn so long and so proudly.
“Sometimes I dream a bit in the sunlit days of fall and I can hear the rustle of my silken folds keeping harmony with the rustle of the leaves ... as they fall to the earth ... and I think of all the places where I have been where American men have fallen down so that I may be safe ... Valley Forge ... Antietam ... San Juan Hill, Montezuma, Tripoli, Lebanon, Italy, Egypt, the Argonne Forest, Omaha Beach, the Iron Triangle ... you name it and I’ve been there.
“And I have not gone there at the head of a band of conquering tyrants, but as the beautiful symbol of freedom, glory, generosity and opportunity with liberty. My proudest memories are of strong men who have wept bitter tears when they have seen me taken down ... like at Corregidor ... and how men wept with joy at the sight of me again ... they regarded me as a loved one.
“I have a lot of memories. Yes I have. I know what the sight of me has meant to so many.
“FREEDOM.
“And more than just a little bit shamed am I when I say that some of my ‘adopted children’ who came here from foreign lands to escape oppression seem to appreciate me more than some of my very own native born.
“There are so many proud memories for me. The times when men unashamedly clutched off their hats and put them at their left breast in silent salute as I was carried by.
“Nobody had heard of that term of scalding derision yet – ‘flag waver.’
“But not all Americans today are shamed to be called ‘flag waver’ or ‘square.’
“I’ve had my times of rapture and exultation.
“I’ve had sad moments too.
“Probably my saddest hours are when I have a duty to perform to pay an obligation to those who paid the price when this country’s security and future was at stake.
“It has been then that I have shivered as I rode stretched out across a long box in the chilly confines of a baggage car or in the cargo hold of a freighter plane. Fastened securely to the box. A box containing the last mortal remains of an American boy who gave his life that I might still live. A gift given without grudging and without any whimperings but the gasp of mortal agony.
“Any funeral they say is a terrible ordeal emotionally.
“But the ones I go to make anyone, strong man or stranger, want to weep. It’s hard enough to have a family standing beside an open grave. It’s harder still when the volleys from the firing squad rip out with a deafening crash. The loved ones standing at graveside quiver and shake as tho live bullets were tearing gaping holes in their flesh.
“Then comes the hardest ordeal of all — the playing of ‘Taps.’ That in itself is so sad that even the strongest, most impassive men break down and weep unashamedly ... the bitter and scalding hot tears of the deepest grief.
“Then comes the solemn part ... the rite I’ve seen so many thousands and thousands of times. As the ceremony ends and it is almost time for the loved ones to turn away, the military escort steps up ... and holds me... and folds me ... carefully ... tenderly ... reverently ... meticulously to the prescribed impact package. Then he hands me, a package of red, white and blue, to a grieving wife or mother and smartly salutes.
“I go home with them. To a place of sacred honor. There are more than just a few of these flags in this community.
“Many a tear has dropped onto that packet of Old Glory. I have had the place of honor in the family treasures because I am ‘the flag’ that came with ‘HIS Coffin’ when we made that sad and weary journey home from where he had paid the supreme price ... whether it was in the muck of Guadalcanal or the snake-infested paddies of Viet Nam.
“To get rid of me would be unthinkable for these loved ones.
“Throw me out? They’d almost be as willing to throw out the family Bible. Because, for loyal Americans everywhere the American Flag is as sacred as the Bible.
“Lately, I’ve been grieving about some of the things they’ve said about me.
Every time I’ve been spat upon, torn to bits, and burned and stamped upon, I’ve quivered in pain.
“Not pain for myself ... but the agony of pain from thinking how much agony American men endured, and at what a price, so that dissenters could have the freedom to desecrate and destroy me.
“They can destroy me, physically, whether I am wearing a silken or cotton dress ... but they cannot destroy the image I have for all Americans — of the glory of the Red, White and Blue.
“I was deeply hurt the other day when a man by the name of Dick Gregory referred to me as ‘just a rag.’
“He said too that unless Negroes get part of the Constitution the whites won’t have a Constitution.
“The last thing a lady should do is engage in a name calling contest with anybody,
“I could answer Mr. Gregory but I’d rather not even mention that it was under the American flag that he now can make $2,000 a week instead of the $20 he used to make washing cars when he felt like it.
“What I’d rather remind him is that each one of my 50 bright stars means something ... something precious ... each star represents another victory won for freedom in America ... freedom for all ... regardless of color, race or creed.
“Some of those stars are a lot newer than the others. Because, we must remember that it was a century ago that we split from the stars and stripes and we had the stars and bars. And we tore this nation right in half, the north and the south. And, brother fought brother and the proposition was that all men, like Mr. Lincoln said, should be free and equal. It’s taken a long time but we’re getting there. So some of my stars come a lot later than some of those that represented the north.
“I could say to Mr. Gregory — go find a flag or a country which you like better ... go find a land where you will find more personal freedom and freedom of opportunity ... and freedom of dissent. But that would serve no purpose.
“Maybe I owe Mr. Gregory a vote of thanks and a real debt of gratitude. His appeals for more burnings in America, for the destruction of the Constitution, for the end of flag worship and calling me ‘just a rag’ has done more good for America than he realizes.
“Maybe he has shocked a lot of people wide awake ... folks who thought the comedian was only kidding when he uttered the vilest threats against America.
“We think his ‘just a rag’ will galvanize into my defense of my sons and daughters who will see me in my red, white and blue as not ‘just a rag’ but as a flag that symbolizes the greatness and glory of my America. A symbol, if you please, of a nation’s constant striving to do better for all peoples no matter how tortuous the path or how painful the travail.
“I am THE FLAG.
“Not ‘just a rag.’
“As I flutter to the ground each sundown, I am caught up by men from east to west and from north to south ...  and in lands around the globe ... caught up so that my skirts won’t even fleetingly touch the ground for even a split second.
“I brood more than a little bit the way I have been defiled and besmirched. I feel as tho the dirt will never be all washed off ... and then I remember that as long as America’s heart is pure I need not worry too much about only surface stains.
“I remember too that the road has never been easy and there has to be a continuous sacrifice if liberty is to be maintained ... that there must always be vigilance to have security and that there must be willingness to sacrifice if we are to continue to keep faith with those who died for freedom’s sake.
“I sleep feeling secure that my sons and daughters will not fail me. Ever.”
 
Written by a man not ashamed to be called a “flag waver” and proud of it, and who believes there are 199,000,000 more just like him.
A.C. McIntosh