It just so happens that while reading A. Scott Berg’s
2013 biography of President Woodrow Wilson, titled eponymously Wilson, I came to the summer of 1916 when,
after much provocation from Germany upon its neighbors far and wide, and after
years of Wilson’s determination to “stay neutral,” things got so bad that the
president went to Congress for permission to put the U. S. into the war.
I’ll pick up on page 403 and since copyright allows
reviews, I’ll quote a few sentences: “June 14—the day in 1777 on which Congress
had adopted the Stars and Stripes as the emblem of the Union—had been
sporadically observed ever since the start of the Civil War; but in the spring
of 1916, Wilson officially proclaimed it a day for ‘special patriotic
exercises’ on which Americans might ‘rededicate ourselves to the nation, ‘one
and inseparable,’ from which every thought that is not worthy of our fathers’
first views of independence, liberty, and right shall be excluded.’ It had an electrifying
effect.”
From The Big Book of American Trivia by J. Stephen
Lang published in the waning years of the 20th century—1997—come
these questions about “Grand Old Flags”: “Flags are more than pieces of fabric.
They’re symbols, often highly charged with emotion. Small wonder that their
design and care have been important parts of American life.”
I’ll skip the first one (June14 is what holiday?) 2.
What was John Philip Sousa’s flag-waving march, written in 1897? 3. What
familiar D. C. sight is 555 feet tall and has fifty American flags around it?
4. What southern state’s flag shows a woman trampling a man? 5. What
southwestern state’s flag features the sun symbol of the Zia Indians on a
yellow background? 6. Over what historic Maryland fort was the first fifty-star
U. S. flag raised in 1960? 7. What was added to the original U. S flag in 1795?
8. What state’s flag was designed in 1927 by a 13-year-old schoolboy? (Hint:
the 49th state)
Answers: 2. “Stars and Stripes Forever”; 3. The
Washington Monument; 4. Virginia’s—the female figure is actually an Amazon
warrior woman, trampling on a tyrant. The state motto is Sic semper
tyranniss—“Thus always to tyrants” (in other words, “Don’t mess with us
Virginia folks”). 5. New Mexico’s;
6. Fort McHenry in Baltimore, site of Francis Scott
Key’s writing of “The Star Spangled Banner”; 7. Two new stars and stripes for
the new states, Vermont, and Kentucky; 8. Alaska’s.
Finally, from The Morrow Book of Quotations in American
History by Joseph R. Conlin, 1984, these tidbits: Oliver Wendell Holmes –
1809-1894, Physician, poet, and wit: “One flag, one land, one head, one hand/
One Nation, evermore!” from “Voyage of the Good Ship Union,” 1802. And John
Greenleaf Whittier (1807- 1892) Poet: “Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,/
But spare your country’s flag,” she said.” (from “Barbara Freitchie,” 1863.
Fly your flag on Flag Day.
