Can We Wave The Flag Too Much?
Dr. S.L.Delove on the "Know Your History Hour" to
a listener who wrote "...Your programs are wonderful... but you wave the flag too much."
Is it possible to wave the flag too much? Provided of course, that you wave it with integrity? Is it possible to
study Lincoln or Shakespeare too much? Is it possible to read the Bible too much?
The great, the good, the true are inexhaustible for inspiration, example and strength. I believe that we are not
waving our flag enough, not nearly enough.
It seems to me that we are developing a tendency to be timid or even apologetic about waving the Stars and Stripes.
Walk up and down the streets on July 4th and count the flags. It is our nations birthday, a sacred day in world
history, the most important day of America. Why isn't the flag flying on every rooftop and from every home and
building? This complacent attitude is strong evidence of cancerous patriotic decay. The flag is a symbol of our
national unity. It is the spirit of our undying devotion to our country. It stands for the best that is in us .
. . for loyalty, character, and faith in democracy.
Isn't our flag a synonym of the United States of America? Does it not represent man's greatest, noblest, most sublime
dream? Is it not the zenith of achievement, the goal to which generations have aspired?
Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe it is time for us . . . for the mad, rushing Twentieth Century American . . . to
stop for a moment and think. Let us arrest our near reverential admiration of material success and return to the
spiritual and ethical values. Let us imbue and rekindle in ourselves and our children the so called old-fashioned
way of patriotism, a burning devotion to the principles and ideals on which our country was founded.
Should not every home own and proudly display the colors on holidays and other such occasions? Isn't the flag Patrick
Henry, Jefferson, Franklin, Washington, Nathan Hale, Gettysburg and Valley Forge, Paul Revere, Jackson and the
other great men and women who have given us our heritage. When you look at the flag can't you see the Alamo, Corrigedor,
Pearl Harbor, The Monitor, The Merrimac, Wake Island and Korea? Lest we forget, isn't the flag Flanders Field,
Bataan, Iwo Jima, Normandy, Babe Ruth and Davy Crockett? The great events of our past and present are wrapped up
in our flag.
It is the symbol of this blessed nation, a giant in industry, education and commerce. Millions of fertile square
miles, wheatlands, coal mines and steel plants. Our great republic, the chosen infant destined to be man's last
and remaining hope for suffering humanity, a shining beacon of light, noble and glorious, the haven for the oppressed
and persecuted and truly God's gift to mankind.
That is what the flag means to me. Can we wave it too much?
I don't think so.
Thanks to Reid Hyken, who sent this to me.
