Colored Cloth Day
June 14, 2009 > MAUI TODAY No Comments |
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Flag Day
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Hae: Flag PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY — Bihainim: Follow HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “It is the tail that makes the kite fly.” HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY — “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”(Samuel Johnson)
Flag Day in the U.S. commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States, which happened by resolution of the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777. “Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.”
The first flag was created by Betsy Ross, who in June 1776, was a widow struggling to run her own upholstery business. Impressed with her sewing skills, members of the Continental Congress including George Washington, entrusted Betsy with making the first U.S. flag.
The idea of an annual day specifically celebrating the flag is believed to have first originated in 1885 by B.J. Cigrand, a Wisconsin schoolteacher. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress. Flag Day is not an official federal holiday.
Fortunately, those pretend-patriotic zealots who have attempted to constitutionally outlaw desecration of the U.S. flag have so far been unsuccessful.
