Washington, DC - June 14th in 1777 the second Continental Congress adopted a resolution. It decreed, “That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white: that the union be thirteen stars, whiten a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
The resolution was introduced by John Adams who later became the second president of the United States.
“Particularly in rural America, citizens make special efforts to pay tribute to the flag in a proper manner. But, in recent years we’ve seen a growing lack of interest in the Stars and Stripes. In fact, protestors have often shown their outright disrespect for the flag -- even trampling on it and burning it for spurious political reasons. It’s sad but they have the right to do that. The Supreme Court upheld that right in a landmark First Amendment decision on June 21, 1989,” according to Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC].
Weber explained that the Supreme Court decision focused on the case of Gregory Lee Johnson, an unabashed Communist, who burned an American flag to protest expressions of patriotism during a demonstration at the1984 Republican National Convention.
Associate Justice William Brennan described the incident in his opinion this way: “The demonstration ended in front of Dallas City Hall, where Johnson unfurled the American flag, doused it with kerosene, and set it on fire. While the flag burned, the protestors chanted, ‘America, the red, white, and blue, we spit on you’."
Whether it is legal or illegal to burn the flag, the majority of Americans still salute the ‘Grand Old Flag,” as George M. Cohan put it in his patriotic marching song in 1906. Among them, according to Weber, is Representative Brad Wenstrup of Ohio's 2nd congressional district. Weber cites Wenstrup’s Opinion Article, published in the Daily Signal for Flag Day 2018.
In that article, Wenstrup revealed that he wrote his own ode to Old Glory, a poetic hymn of praise that hangs in his office. It’s a poem worth noting:
Today, as we pledge our loyalty to this flag,
Think about what she has stood for, think about where she has been.
From the home of Betsy Ross, to the streets of Concord, to the fields of Gettysburg.
From the rocks of Iwo Jima, to the Tundra of Korea, to the jungles of Vietnam,
And the deserts of the Middle East.
She has stood in your front yards, and she has stood on the moon.
She has been sadly placed over coffins, and proudly raised at the Olympics.
