This is the best country in the world.  Why do you think we have such a problem with illegal aliens?  If Mexico, for example, were such a great place California would have different census figures and more money in its coffers. America—“God, Guns and Guts: That’s What Made This Country Great!” “Red, White & Blue: These Colors Don’t Run!” I buy into all of that. Are we perfect?  Of course we’re not.  Still, we are the best choice there is, folks. Where else can you buy things you don’t really need 24/7 and make comments about our leader looking just a little like Curious George?  Nowhere else but here!

The problem is I was never a true follower and (since college) I was never one to be trendy. After “9/11” it seemed like everyone was suddenly flying an American flag out their car window or slapping a flag sticker on their bumpers.   There were flags on t-shirts. There were flags everywhere.  It was the first time in California that the “stars and stripes” adorned more bumpers than the Mexican flag. In the counties of Los Angeles and San Bernardino the tragedy of 9/11 had so affected citizens that the flag of our nation could almost be seen adorning more vehicles than L. A. Laker’s pendants.

It was a sobering time in the history of our country, wasn’t it?(Luckily, I was often gratefully stirred from those somber moments whenever I would see imports—especially Japanese—flying cheap American flags from their windows.  Remember Pearl Harbor? Maybe if these people had been buying American cars our tax dollars would not have been handed out to our own auto industries.  But, I digress . . .) Patriotism is not something that should be “trendy”. We Americans have had it too good for too long and we should be proud of our country no matter what! 

Flag Day is not always considered a union holiday so no one can think of it as another chance to drink and get drunk. I don’t know. What I do know is it took a near earth-shattering event right under our noses to make pride in our flag trendy albeit for a little while.  That is just wrong.

Patriotism is NOT just something that is hip and cool for a few years and then fades away like New Coke or Pet Rocks. True patriotism lasts a lifetime and Flag Day is NOT just another odd, unimportant holiday. Perhaps before continuing we need to stop right now and reflect on the history of the event.

Although the Fourth of July is the birthday of America, Flag Day, June 14th, is the day we celebrate the “birthday” of our flag. It is generally believed that the concept of the holiday came about in 1885.  B. J. Cigrand, a teacher, arranged for the students in the Fredonia, Wisco Public School, and District 6, to celebrate the day as “Flag Birthday” or “Flag Day” for short. In June 14, 1889, George Balch, another teacher in New York City also observed the day with the students at his school and the New York State Board of Education officially adopted the idea.

In April of 1893, the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames of America adopted a resolution asking the mayor and citizens of Philadelphia to display the American flag on June 14th. Two weeks passed until Dr. Edward Brooks, the Superintendent of Public Schools of Philadelphia at the time, held a Flag Day ceremony on June 14th, 1893 in Independence Square, Philadelphia. The following year, Chicago, Illinois followed, holding even larger Flag Day celebrations all over the state.  Several years later, on May 30th, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson officially established the anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777 as Flag Day. Finally, on August 3rd, 1949, President Harry Truman signed an Act of Congress designating June 14th of each year to come as National Flag Day. So here we are another holiday history piece full of my opinions.

After all the ranting, I’ve come to only one real conclusion. Several years after the dark events of the 9/11 tragedies and all the assorted flag-waving that followed immediately after, patriotism is indeed no longer hip and trendy.  There is no longer an over-abundance of flag stickers and car flags.  Despite our involvement in an actual “war”, things are pretty much back to pre-9/11 “normal” as far as flag-waving is concerned anyway.

Strangely, I have mixed feelings. While I still firmly believe that flag-waving patriotism should not be a throwaway, temporary trend, I now find myself wondering if anyone actually gives a damn anymore. Happy Flag Day, folks and God Bless America . . . for what that’s worth.

My name is Phoenix and . . . that’s the bottom line.