What does the American flag stand for?
By RONALD PESTRITTO Claremont Institute Americans today seem very much in the holiday spirit with Flag Day just past and the Fourth of July coming up. Since the attacks on our country last September, it has been wonderful to see the flag flying almost everywhere. This is certainly a welcome change from the condescension with which cultural elites and opinion leaders have frequently viewed “flag waving” in modern America. Officially created on June 14, 1777 by an act of the Second Continental Congress, the American Flag underwent many modifications until 1912, when President Taft established standard proportions for it and ordered that the stars be displayed in rows. The Flag Day holiday was established formally by a proclamation of President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and cemented into law when President Truman signed an act of Congress in 1949. To remind ourselves of the ideas represented in the flag, the proximity of Flag Day and the Fourth of July cannot be mere coincidence. It was the
I’m unsure if you are asking what the American flag stands for literally or figuratively. Literally, the thirteen stripes on the flag represent the thirteen original colonies. The fifty stars represent the fifty current states. Figuratively, the flag stands for freedom and democracy. It represents the unity of America, our common cause, and the hope for a better tomorrow.
Stripes stand for the 13 colonies and the Stars are the 50 states. (Wow, I remember that from school but not much else.) The flag reminds us to be proud to be American. Im proud to be an American Where at least I know i’m free and I wont forget the men who died who gave that right to me (part of some song they made us memorize for veterans day.
