Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home Elks Lodge and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Color Guard held a ceremony on Flag Day, June 14, commemorating the birth of the American flag.
The Elks are unique as the only fraternal organization required to conduct a ceremony in recognition of Flag Day, said Exalted Ruler Charly Bashaw.
“The purpose of this service is to honor our country’s flag, to cele-brate the anniversary of its birth and to recall the achievements attained beneath its folds.”
The Elks and veterans placed historic flags in stands and explained the story behind each of them as part of the scripted ritual.
During the ritual, Bashaw asked Leading Knight Terry Layman what was the significance of the American flag.
“It is emblematic of the crowning virtue, charity,” he replied.
She asked the acting Loyal Knight Barbara Ross the same question.
“It is emblematic of justice for all,” she said.
Lecturing Knight Wendy Kaplan answered a third time: “It is the symbol of brotherly love.”
“It is the symbol of fidelity,” Esquire Al Bashaw said when asked.
“Charity, justice, brotherly love and fidelity are the cardinal principals of our order, and they are exemplified in all of our services,” Charly Bashaw said.
“By them we teach love of country and of our countrymen and loyalty to our American way of life. To be an Elk is to be an American citizen who lives for their country and is ready to die for it.”
Layman outlined the history of the American flag.
“The carrying of banners has been a custom of all peoples in all ages,” he said. “These banners usually contain some concept of the life or government of those who fashion them.”
From the founding of Jamestown in Virginia in 1607 until 1775, the flag of England was the flag of the people of America, he said. In 1775, the Pine Tree Flag was adopted for all colonial vessels, and it was carried by Continental forces in the Battle of Bunker Hill. From 1776 to 1777, the southern colonies used the Snake Flag.
In 1775, the Continental Congress appointed a committee to consider a single flag for the 13 colonies, Layman said. The committee recommended a design of 13 alternate stripes of red and white with an azure field in the upper corner bearing the red cross of St. George and the white cross of St. Andrew.
John Paul Jones, the senior lieutenant of the flagship “Alfred” hoisted this flag on Dec. 3, 1775, Layman said. One month later, it was raised over the headquarters of George Washington at Cambridge, Mass., “in compliment to the United Colonies.”
That flag, called “The Continental Colors” or “The Grand Union,” was never carried in the field by Continental land forces, Layman said, but it was used by the Navy. It was the first American flag to receive a salute of honor, a salute of 11 guns from the Fort of Orange in the Dutch West Indies.
In response to a general demand for a banner more representative of the nation, Congress decided that it should have 13 alternating red and white stripes with 13 stars on a blue field, representing a new constellation.
Layman said it is generally believed that in May or June of 1776, a committee consisting of George Washington, Robert Morris and George Ross commissioned Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia Quakeress, to make a flag from a rough design they left with her.
“It is said that she suggested that the stars should have five points rather than six.”
That banner first flew at Ft. Stanwix, called Ft. Schuyler at the time, near the city of Rome, N.Y., on Aug. 3, 1777. It was under fire three days later at the battle of Oriskany during a British and Indian attack.
The first official salute to the Stars and Stripes was given on Feb. 14, 1778 by France on the French coast when The Ranger, under command of John Paul Jones, was saluted by the French fleet, Layman said.
“This flag, then carried by the ‘Ranger,’ was made by the young women of Portsmouth, N.H., from stripes of their best colored-silk dresses and the white wedding gown of a recent bride.”
In 1795, the flag gained two new stripes and stars when Vermont and Kentucky joined the union, Layman said. The flag flew during the War of 1812.
“It was the sight of it flying over Ft. McHenry on Sept. 14, 1814 that inspired Francis Scott Key to write what was to become our national anthem,” Layman said. Margaret Young, who cut the stars for that particular banner, was the mother of Henry Sanderson, the grand exalted ruler of the Order of the Elks in 1884.
April 14, 1818, Congress adopted a resolution that on and after July 4, 1818, the number of stripes would be reduced to 13 and the blue field would carry one star for each of the 20 states in the union, Layman said. Afterward, a new star would be added for each state admitted to the union.
The flag grew to 48 stars by 1912, and flew that way for 47 years – until Alaska became a state on July 4, 1959. The final star was added when Hawaii became a state in 1960.
Layman closed his history review as veterans posted the POW-MIA flag, which recognizes “the plight and demise of a special group of our armed services, those who were prisoners of war or still remain missing in action.”
“Our flag is at once a history, a declaration and a prophecy,” Bashaw said. “It represents the American nation as it was at its birth. It speaks for what it is today, and it holds the opportunity for the future to add other stars to the glorious constellation.”
“The Stars and Stripes, Flag of the United States of America,” Al Bashaw said. “The worldwide hope of all who, under God, would be free to live and to do His will. Upon its folds is written the story of America, the epic of the mightiest and noblest in all history.
“In the days when peoples of the old world groveled in abject homage to the heresy of the divine right of kings, a new constellation appeared in the western skies, the Stars and Stripes, symbolizing the divine right of all to life, liberty, happiness and peace under endowment by their Creator.”
It is the heritage of the people of the United States, he said. It has been repurchased by each succeeding generation, and it must be re-won again and again.
“The price of liberty is eternal vigilance,” Bashaw said. “What was won at Lexington and Concord and Bunker Hill had to be repurchased at Ticonderoga and Yorktown.”
It happened again and again into the modern age.
“Who among us will ever forget the sight of firefighters raising our flag over the ruins of the World Trade Center, the military personnel draping our flag on the side of the Pentagon or the citizens of Somerset County, Pa., placing our flag near the site where brave Americans died fighting the hijackers of Flight No. 93?” Bashaw asked. “No other symbol could have offered such comfort as we still, today, endure the horrors of that day.”
What does the flag mean? He asked. “There can never be a definitive answer to that question. There are people in this world who see it as a symbol of imperialism. Others see it as a destiny of the people. But references to these and similar views of the flag was resolved by Woodrow Wilson when he said, ‘This flag, which we honor and under which we serve, is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and the shape of this nation.
“It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours.’”