PatriotPix

What Is This?

2006-09-24T11:15:00.001-07:00

Welcome to PatriotPix, wherein you will find 46 of my digital impressions of our storied and revered American flag!

Navigation

Even though PatriotPix is a blog, I've organized it like a traditional web site, having a sidebar containing links from which you can open any of the post pages.

If you're on a dial-up connection, or if you prefer using a low monitor resolution, you can view good quality versions of my images by setting your resolution to 800 x 600 and clicking on any of the links labeled "800 x 600" below the thumbnails in the sidebar.

If you're on a DSL or broadband connection, or if you prefer using a higher monitor resolution, you can view excellent quality versions of my images by setting your resolution to 1024 x 768 and clicking on any of the links labeled "1024 x 768" below the thumbnails in the sidebar.

For best results, maximize your browser window and turn off any web accelerators you may be using, because they tend to degrade image quality. Refer to your provider's instructions if you're not sure how to do this.

Creation

I created my images using Adobe Photoshop CS2, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo XI, Corel Painter IX.5, GIMP 2.2.13, and IrfanView 3.98.

Text

I've posted various kinds of text with each image, including patriotic songs, speeches, essays, poems, and quotations. To see a list of these, click on the appropriate link in the sidebar under "INDEX TO TEXT" ("Where Was That?").

Shopping

I've placed links on each page to some great bargains at high-quality e-commerce shopping sites. Please take advantage of these!

Tagging

If you would like to tag or bookmark any of my pages, I've included links to most of the popular social bookmarking sites at the end of each page. Please take advantage of these also!

Copyright

All American flag images displayed herein are Copyright © Jeffrey L. Hanson 2006.

Enjoy...and God Bless America!

Technorati Tags:

american flag | american flag art | american flag graphics | american flag images
united states flag | united states flag art | united states flag graphics | united states flag images
u s flag | u s flag art | u s flag graphics | u s flag images | u.s. flag | u.s. flag art
u.s. flag graphics | u.s. flag images | us flag | us flag art | us flag graphics | us flag images

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Testing Technorati: Day 8

2006-09-23T05:25:00.000-07:00

Testing again to see whether Technorati posts this page after pinging them, and whether it shows up in my Google Reader.

On previous test days, it HAS NOT been showing up in Technorati. It HAS been showing up in Reader.

Testing Technorati: Day 7

2006-09-23T05:20:00.000-07:00

Testing Technorati: Day 6

2006-09-23T05:15:00.000-07:00

Testing Technorati: Day 5

2006-09-23T05:00:00.000-07:00

Testing again to see whether Technorati posts this page after pinging them, and whether it shows up in my Google Reader.

Testing Technorati: Day 4

2006-09-23T04:12:00.001-07:00

Testing again to see whether Technorati posts this page after pinging them, and whether it shows up in my Google Reader.

Testing Technorati: Day 3

2006-09-22T08:14:00.001-07:00

Testing again to see whether Technorati posts this page after pinging them, and whether it shows up in my Google Reader.

Testing Technorati: Day 2

2006-09-21T04:20:00.000-07:00

Testing to see whether Technorati posts this page after pinging them, and whether it shows up in my Google Reader.

Technorati Profile

2006-09-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

Technorati Profile

Where Was That? (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

A Symbol of the Nation
America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)
America the Beautiful
An American Without Reserve
Barbara Frietchie
Betsy's Battle Flag
Columbia, Gem of the Ocean
Daniel Webster Speaks at Bunker Hill
D-Day Order
Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!
God Bless America
God Bless the U.S.A.
I Am the Flag
I Have a Dream
Lincoln's Letter to Mrs. Bixby
Marines' Hymn
O Beautiful Banner
Old Ironsides
Our Flag - America's Tonic Against Cynicism
Patriotic Quotations I
Patriotic Quotations II
Patriotic Quotations III
Quotations About America
Quotations About Americans
Ragged Old Flag
Red Skelton's "Pledge of Allegiance"
Rights and Duties
Stars and Stripes Forever
The Battle Hymn of the Republic
The Emancipation Proclamation
The Flag
The Flag Code (Sections 1-5)
The Flag Code (Sections 6 & 7)
The Flag Code (Sections 8-10)
The Flag Goes By
The Gettysburg Address
The History of The Star-Spangled Banner
The Meaning of "Old Glory"
The Meaning of Our Flag
The Star Spangled Banner
The Yankee Doodle Boy ("Yankee Doodle Dandy")
This Flag
This Land Is Your Land
When Johnny Comes Marching Home
Yankee Doodle
You're a Grand Old Flag

Is That All There Is?

2006-08-15T18:01:00.001-07:00

I derived these links, which I've displayed in alphabetical order, from the top 50 results of Google and Yahoo! searches I performed on October 5, 2006, using search terms "american flag", "american flag pictures", "flag", "flag of the united states", "united states flag", and "us flag".

I am providing these links for informational and educational purposes only, and therefore have not included links to commercial web sites, such as those which sell American flags, clip art, or stock photography. I have also not included links to sites espousing political beliefs or persuations.

3DFlags.com
3DFlags.com features 3D animated waving flags from all over the world.

American Flag
An extensive pictorial history of the flag, including Colonial and Revolutionary War flags.

American Flag in The Yahoo! Directory
Listings in the Yahoo! Search Directory under categories Etiquette, Flag Burning, Flag Day, Graphics and Clip Art, Museums, Retailers, and State Flags.

American Flag Wallpaper and Backgrounds for Your Desktop
Spyware-free patriotic wallpaper and backgrounds from About.com.

American Flags - Flag Links - Patriotic Links
Many links to web sites devoted to the American flag and patriotism.

Ben's Guide (3-5): Symbols of U.S. Government - Flag of the United States
A US Government web site devoted to explaining about our system of government and our nation's history to children. This page contains facts about the flag.

Ceremony for the Disposal of Unserviceable Flags
The American Legion's guidelines for disposing of unserviceable flags.

CRS Report for Congress: The United States Flag
This report, prepared for the use of the members of the House and Senate by attorneys with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, analyzes the Flag Code and frequently asked questions regarding it.

EDSITEment Lesson Plan - Stars and Stripes Forever: Flag Facts for Flag Day
An educational web site for children provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

FCIC National Contact Center - Order a Flag
Guidelines for obtaining an American flag that has flown over the United States Capital Building in Washington, D.C., by the Federal Citizen Information Center.

FCIC National Contact Center: Our Flag
A detailed analysis of the American flag by the Federal Citizen Information Center.

Flag Day Activities for Kids
Flag Day activities for children, including coloring pages, crafts, and word searches.

Flag of the United States - MSN Encarta
A detailed analysis of the American flag in MSN Encarta.

Flag of the United States - Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
A detailed analysis of the American flag in Wikipedia.

Flag of the United States at Allexperts
A detailed analysis of the American flag in Allexperts.

FLY OUR FLAG HIGH
Photos of the American flag submitted by readers of noted blogger Michelle Malkin's tribute to "Take an American Flag to Work Day".

Free Printable Coloring Sheets
A web site for children offering printable coloring sheets with American themes.

Google Directory - Reference > Flags > Regional > United States
Web sites about the American flag in either Google PageRank or alphabetical order.

History of the Flag of the United States
As unlikely as it might seem, the web site for the United States Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, has one of the most complete analyses of the American flag on the Internet, especially including excellent images of Colonial and Revolutionary War flags.

Mooney's Flag Detective
Mooney's Flag Detective provides tools to identify unfamiliar flags of the world.

National Flag Foundation
The National Flag Foundation is America's leading non-profit patriotic educational organization promoting respect for the American flag.

NSSAR - Flag Etiquette Quiz
Test your knowledge of flag etiquette with this quiz from the Sons of the American Revolution.

Proud to be Americans!
An educational site hosted by Salem, Virginia Elementary School, "Proud to be Americans!" contains a wealth of information for young children related to American history and the American flag.

State Flags
Nice GIF images and descriptions of the flags of all 50 states.

Symbols of the United States
Links to many topics relative to the American flag, including hard-to-find historical images.

The Flag Code
The American Legion's reprint of the Flag Code.

The Flag of the United States
Red Skelton's "Pledge of Allegiance" commentary and an extensive pictorial history of the Stars and Stripes.

Today in History: June 14
A history of Flag Day by the Library of Congress.

United States Flag Procedures
Information about military flag procedures and ceremonies, such as folding the flag, retreat, flag disposal, et cetera, from About.com.

United States of America
Links to numerous pages offering detailed analyses of the American flag at the Flags of the World web site, considered by vexillologists to be the premier source of online information about flags.

US CODE--TITLE 4--FLAG AND SEAL, SEAT OF GOVERNMENT, AND THE STATES
Official Government Printing Office online publication of the Flag Code.

US Flag
A graphical presentation on how to fold the flag.

ushistory.org
ushistory.org, hosted by the Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia since 1995, is a treasure trove of early American history, early American flags, the evolution of the Stars and Stripes, historical figures, historical places, important documents, and related resources.

World Flag Database
A comprehensive database of high-quality images of virtually all the flags of the world.

Flag 001 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

The Flag Code (Sections 1-5)

United States Code Title 4 Chapter 1 — The Flag

§1. Flag; stripes and stars on

The flag of the United States shall be thirteen horizontal stripes, alternate red and white; and the union of the flag shall be forty-eight stars [Note that Section 2, which follows, provides for additional stars. Today the flag has fifty stars representing the fifty states - Jeff Hanson], white in a blue field

§2. Same; additional stars

On the admission of a new State into the Union one star shall be added to the union of the flag; and such addition shall take effect on the fourth day of July then next succeeding such admission

§3. Use of flag for advertising purposes; mutilation of flag

Any person who, within the District of Columbia, in any manner, for exhibition or display, shall place or cause to be placed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, drawing, or any advertisement of any nature upon any flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America; or shall expose or cause to be exposed to public view any such flag, standard, colors, or ensign upon which shall have been printed, painted, or otherwise placed, or to which shall be attached, appended, affixed, or annexed any word, figure, mark, picture, design, or drawing, or any advertisement of any nature; or who, within the District of Columbia, shall manufacture, sell, expose for sale, or to public view, or give away or have in possession for sale, or to be given away or for use for any purpose, any article or substance being an article of merchandise, or a receptacle for merchandise or article or thing for carrying or transporting merchandise, upon which shall have been printed, painted, attached, or otherwise placed a representation of any such flag, standard, colors, or ensign, to advertise, call attention to, decorate, mark, or distinguish the article or substance on which so placed shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $100 or by imprisonment for not more than thirty days, or both, in the discretion of the court. The words "flag, standard, colors, or ensign", as used herein, shall include any flag, standard, colors, ensign, or any picture or representation of either, or of any part or parts of either, made of any substance or represented on any substance, of any size evidently purporting to be either of said flag, standard, colors, or ensign of the United States of America or a picture or a representation of either, upon which shall be shown the colors, the stars and the stripes, in any number of either thereof, or of any part or parts of either, by which the average person seeing the same without deliberation may believe the same to represent the flag, colors, standard, or ensign of the United States of America.

§4. Pledge of allegiance to the flag; manner of delivery

The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.", should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. When not in uniform men should remove any non-religious headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute.

§5. Display and use of flag by civilians; codification of rules and customs; definition

The following codification of existing rules and customs pertaining to the display and use of the flag of the United States of America be, and it is hereby, established for the use of such civilians or civilian groups or organizations as may not be required to conform with regulations promulgated by one or more executive departments of the Government of the United States. The flag of the United States for the purpose of this chapter shall be defined according to title 4, United States Code, Chapter 1, Section 1 and Section 2 and Executive Order 10834 issued pursuant thereto.

You can read Sections 6 and 7 of the Flag Code here, and Sections 8-10 here.

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Technorati Tags:

american flag | american flag art | american flag graphics | american flag images
united states flag | united states flag art | united states flag graphics | united states flag images
u s flag | u s flag art | u s flag graphics | u s flag images | u.s. flag | u.s. flag art
u.s. flag graphics | u.s. flag images | us flag | us flag art | us flag graphics | us flag images

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Flag 002 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T17:55:00.000-07:00

The Flag Code (Sections 6 & 7)

United States Code Title 4 Chapter 1 — The Flag

§6. Time and occasions for display

It is the universal custom to display the flag only from sunrise to sunset on buildings and on stationary flagstaffs in the open. However, when a patriotic effect is desired, the flag may be displayed twenty-four hours a day if properly illuminated during the hours of darkness.
The flag should be hoisted briskly and lowered ceremoniously.
The flag should not be displayed on days when the weather is inclement, except when an all-weather flag is displayed.
The flag should be displayed on all days, especially on
New Year's Day, January 1
Inauguration Day, January 20
Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, third Monday in January
Lincoln's Birthday, February 12
Washington's Birthday, third Monday in February
Easter Sunday (variable)
Mother's Day, second Sunday in May
Armed Forces Day, third Saturday in May
Memorial Day (half-staff until noon), the last Monday in May
Flag Day, June 14
Independence Day, July 4
Labor Day, first Monday in September
Constitution Day, September 17
Columbus Day, second Monday in October
Navy Day, October 27
Veterans Day, November 11
Thanksgiving Day, fourth Thursday in November
Christmas Day, December 25
and such other days as may be proclaimed by the President of the United States
the birthdays of States (date of admission)
and on State holidays.

The flag should be displayed daily on or near the main administration building of every public institution.
The flag should be displayed in or near every polling place on election days.
The flag should be displayed during school days in or near every schoolhouse.

§7. Position and manner of display

The flag, when carried in a procession with another flag or flags, should be either on the marching right; that is, the flag's own right, or, if there is a line of other flags, in front of the center of that line.

The flag should not be displayed on a float in a parade except from a staff, or as provided in subsection (i) of this section.
The flag should not be draped over the hood, top, sides, or back of a vehicle or of a railroad train or a boat. When the flag is displayed on a motorcar, the staff shall be fixed firmly to the chassis or clamped to the right fender.
No other flag or pennant should be placed above or, if on the same level, to the right of the flag of the United States of America, except during church services conducted by naval chaplains at sea, when the church pennant may be flown above the flag during church services for the personnel of the Navy. No person shall display the flag of the United Nations or any other national or international flag equal, above, or in a position of superior prominence or honor to, or in place of, the flag of the United States at any place within the United States or any Territory or possession thereof: Provided, That nothing in this section shall make unlawful the continuance of the practice heretofore followed of displaying the flag of the United Nations in a position of superior prominence or honor, and other national flags in positions of equal prominence or honor, with that of the flag of the United States at the headquarters of the United Nations.
The flag of the United States of America, when it is displayed with another flag against a wall from crossed staffs, should be on the right, the flag's own right, and its staff should be in front of the staff of the other flag.
The flag of the United States of America should be at the center and at the highest point of the group when a number of flags of States or localities or pennants of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs.
When flags of States, cities, or localities, or pennants of societies are flown on the same halyard with the flag of the United States, the latter should always be at the peak. When the flags are flown from adjacent staffs, the flag of the United States should be hoisted first and lowered last. No such flag or pennant may be placed above the flag of the United States or to the United States flag's right.
When flags of two or more nations are displayed, they are to be flown from separate staffs of the same height. The flags should be of approximately equal size. International usage forbids the display of the flag of one nation above that of another nation in time of peace.
When the flag of the United States is displayed from a staff projecting horizontally or at an angle from the window sill, balcony, or front of a building, the union of the flag should be placed at the peak of the staff unless the flag is at half-staff. When the flag is suspended over a sidewalk from a rope extending from a house to a pole at the edge of the sidewalk, the flag should be hoisted out, union first, from the building.
When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the union should be uppermost and to the flag's own right, that is, to the observer's left. When displayed in a window, the flag should be displayed in the same way, with the union or blue field to the left of the observer in the street.
When the flag is displayed over the middle of the street, it should be suspended vertically with the union to the north in an east and west street or to the east in a north and south street.
When used on a speaker's platform, the flag, if displayed flat, should be displayed above and behind the speaker. When displayed from a staff in a church or public auditorium, the flag of the United States of America should hold the position of superior prominence, in advance of the audience, and in the position of honor at the clergyman's or speaker's right as he faces the audience. Any other flag so displayed should be placed on the left of the clergyman or speaker or to the right of the audience.
The flag should form a distinctive feature of the ceremony of unveiling a statue or monument, but it should never be used as the covering for the statue or monument.
The flag, when flown at half-staff, should be first hoisted to the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff position. The flag should be again raised to the peak before it is lowered for the day. On Memorial Day the flag should be displayed at half-staff until noon only, then raised to the top of the staff. By order of the President, the flag shall be flown at half-staff upon the death of principal figures of the United States Government and the Governor of a State, territory, or possession, as a mark of respect to their memory. In the event of the death of other officials or foreign dignitaries, the flag is to be displayed at half-staff according to Presidential instructions or orders, or in accordance with recognized customs or practices not inconsistent with law. In the event of the death of a present or former official of the government of any State, territory, or possession of the United States, the Governor of that State, territory, or possession may proclaim that the National flag shall be flown at half-staff. The flag shall be flown at half-staff 30 days from the death of the President or a former President; 10 days from the day of death of the Vice President, the Chief Justice or a retired Chief Justice of the United States, or the Speaker of the House of Representatives; from the day of death until interment of an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, a Secretary of an executive or military department, a former Vice President, or the Governor of a State, territory, or possession; and on the day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress. The flag shall be flown at half-staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day, unless that day is also Armed Forces Day. As used in this subsection —
the term "half-staff" means the position of the flag when it is one-half the distance between the top and bottom of the staff;
the term "executive or military department" means any agency listed under sections 101 and 102 of title 5, United States Code; and
the term "Member of Congress" means a Senator, a Representative, a Delegate, or the Resident Commissioner from Puerto Rico.
When the flag is used to cover a casket, it should be so placed that the union is at the head and over the left shoulder. The flag should not be lowered into the grave or allowed to touch the ground.
When the flag is suspended across a corridor or lobby in a building with only one main entrance, it should be suspended vertically with the union of the flag to the observer's left upon entering. If the building has more than one main entrance, the flag should be suspended vertically near the center of the corridor or lobby with the union to the north, when entrances are to the east and west or to the east when entrances are to the north and south. If there are entrances in more than two directions, the union should be to the east.

You can read Sections 1-5 of the Flag Code here, and Sections 8-10 here.

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Technorati Tags:

american flag | american flag art | american flag graphics | american flag images
united states flag | united states flag art | united states flag graphics | united states flag images
u s flag | u s flag art | u s flag graphics | u s flag images | u.s. flag | u.s. flag art
u.s. flag graphics | u.s. flag images | us flag | us flag art | us flag graphics | us flag images

Social Bookmarking:

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Feed Me Links | Furl | GiveALink | Gravee | Jots | Lilisto | linkaGoGo | Linkfilter | Linkroll
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Flag 003 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T17:50:00.000-07:00

The Flag Code (Sections 8-10)

United States Code Title 4 Chapter 1 — The Flag

§8. Respect for flag

No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.

The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.
The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker's desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.
The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way.
The flag should never be used as a covering for a ceiling.
The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.
No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.
The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning

§9. Conduct during hoisting, lowering or passing of flag

During the ceremony of hoisting or lowering the flag or when the flag is passing in a parade or in review, all persons present except those in uniform should face the flag and stand at attention with the right hand over the heart. Those present in uniform should render the military salute. When not in uniform, men should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Aliens should stand at attention. The salute to the flag in a moving column should be rendered at the moment the flag passes

§10. Modification of rules and customs by President

Any rule or custom pertaining to the display of the flag of the United States of America, set forth herein, may be altered, modified, or repealed, or additional rules with respect thereto may be prescribed, by the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, whenever he deems it to be appropriate or desirable; and any such alteration or additional rule shall be set forth in a proclamation.

You can read Sections 1-5 of the Flag Code here, and Sections 6 & 7 here.

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Technorati Tags:

american flag | american flag art | american flag graphics | american flag images
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Flag 004 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T17:45:00.000-07:00

The Star Spangled Banner
by Francis Scott Key
September 20, 1814

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

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Flag 005 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T17:40:00.000-07:00

The History of the Star-Spangled Banner

Since 1912, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. has been in possession of the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the words for the song that later became our National Anthem.

The following historical accounts are taken from the Smithsonian's online article "Star-Spangled Banner and the War of 1812".

Making the Star-Spangled Banner

In June 1813, Major George Armistead arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, to take command of Fort McHenry, built to guard the water entrance to the city. Armistead commissioned Mary Pickersgill, a Baltimore flag maker, to sew two flags for the fort: a smaller storm flag (17 by 25 ft) and a larger garrison flag (30 by 42 ft). She was hired under a government contract and was assisted by her daughter, two nieces, and an indentured African-American girl.

The larger of these two flags would become known as the "Star-Spangled Banner". Pickersgill stitched it from a combination of dyed English wool bunting (red and white stripes and blue union) and white cotton (stars). Each star is about two feet in diameter, each stripe about 24 inches wide. The Star-Spangled Banner’s impressive scale (about one-fourth the size of a modern basketball court) reflects its purpose as a garrison flag. It was intended to fly from a flagpole about ninety feet high and be visible from great distances. At its original dimensions of 30 by 42 feet, it was larger than the modern garrison flags used today by the United States Army, which have a standard size of 20 by 38 feet.

The first Flag Act, adopted on June 14, 1777, created the original United States flag of thirteen stars and thirteen stripes. The Star-Spangled Banner has fifteen stars and fifteen stripes as provided for in the second Flag Act approved by Congress on January 13, 1794. The additional stars and stripes represent Vermont (1791) and Kentucky (1792) joining the Union. (The third Flag Act, passed on April 4, 1818, reduced the number of stripes back to thirteen to honor the original thirteen colonies and provided for one star for each state — a new star to be added to the flag on the Fourth of July following the admission of each new state.) Pickersgill spent between six and eight weeks making the flags, and they were delivered to Fort McHenry on August 19, 1813. The government paid $405.90 for the garrison flag and $168.54 for the storm flag. The garrison flag would soon after be raised at Fort McHenry and ultimately find a permanent home at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. The whereabouts of the storm flag are not known.

The War of 1812 and the Burning of Washington

Although its events inspired one of our most famous national songs, the War of 1812 is itself a relatively little-known war in American history. Despite its complicated causes and inconclusive outcome, the conflict helped establish the credibility of the young United States among other nations. It also fostered a strong sense of national pride among the American people, and those patriotic feelings are reflected and preserved in the song we know today as our national anthem.

Britain’s defeat at the 1781 Battle of Yorktown marked the conclusion of the American Revolution and the beginning of new challenges for a new nation. Not even three decades after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, which formalized Britain’s recognition of the United States of America, the two countries were again in conflict. Resentment for Britain’s interference with American international trade and impressment of American sailors combined with American expansionist visions led Congress to declare war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812.

In the early stages of the war, the American navy scored victories in the Atlantic and on Lake Erie while Britain concentrated its military efforts on its ongoing war with France. But with the defeat of Emperor Napoleon’s armies in April 1814, Britain turned its full attention to the war against an ill-prepared United States. Admiral Alexander Cochrane, the British naval commander, prepared to attack U.S. coastal areas, and General Robert Ross sought to capture towns along the East Coast to create diversions while British army forces attacked along the northern boundaries of the United States.

In August 1814, General Ross and his seasoned troops landed near the nation’s capital. On August 24, at Bladensburg, Maryland, about 30 miles from Washington, his five-thousand-member British force defeated an American army twice its size. That same night, British troops entered Washington. They set fire to the United States Capitol, the President’s Mansion, and other public buildings. The local militia fled, and President James Madison and wife Dolley barely escaped.

The Battle of Baltimore

With Washington in ruins, the British next set their sights on Baltimore, then America’s third-largest city. Moving up the Chesapeake Bay to the mouth of the Patapsco River, they plotted a joint attack on Baltimore by land and water. On the morning of September 12, General Ross’s troops landed at North Point, Maryland, and progressed towards the city. They soon encountered the American forward line, part of an extensive network of defenses established around Baltimore in anticipation of the British assault. During the skirmish with American troops, General Ross, so successful in the attack on Washington, was killed by a sharpshooter. Surprised by the strength of the American defenses, British forces camped on the battlefield and waited for nightfall on September 13, planning to attempt another attack under cover of darkness.

Meanwhile, Britain’s naval force, buoyed by its earlier successful attack on Alexandria, Virginia, was poised to strike Fort McHenry and enter Baltimore Harbor. At 6:30 AM on September 13, 1814, Admiral Cochrane’s ships began a 25-hour bombardment of the fort. Rockets whistled through the air and burst into flame wherever they struck. Mortars fired 10- and 13-inch bombshells that exploded overhead in showers of fiery shrapnel. Major Armistead, commander of Fort McHenry and its defending force of one thousand troops, ordered his men to return fire, but their guns couldn’t reach the enemy’s ships. When British ships advanced on the afternoon of the 13th, however, American gunners badly damaged them, forcing them to pull back out of range. All through the night, Armistead’s men continued to hold the fort, refusing to surrender. That night British attempts at a diversionary attack also failed, and by dawn they had given up hope of taking the city. At 7:30 on the morning of September 14, Admiral Cochrane called an end to the bombardment, and the British fleet withdrew. The successful defense of Baltimore marked a turning point in the War of 1812. Three months later, on December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent formally ended the war.

Because the British attack had coincided with a heavy rainstorm, Fort McHenry had flown its smaller storm flag throughout the battle. But at dawn, as the British began to retreat, Major Armistead ordered his men to lower the storm flag and replace it with the great garrison flag. As they raised the flag, the troops fired their guns and played "Yankee Doodle" in celebration of their victory. Waving proudly over the fort, the banner could be seen for miles around—as far away as a ship anchored eight miles down the river, where an American lawyer named Francis Scott Key had spent an anxious night watching and hoping for a sign that the city—and the nation—might be saved.

The Inspiration of Francis Scott Key: From Poem to Anthem

Before departing from a ravaged Washington, British soldiers had arrested Dr. William Beanes of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, on the charge that he was responsible for the arrests of British stragglers and deserters during the campaign to attack the nation’s capital. They subsequently imprisoned him on a British warship.

Friends of Dr. Beanes asked Georgetown lawyer Francis Scott Key to join John S. Skinner, the U.S. government’s agent for dealing with British forces in the Chesapeake, and help secure the release of the civilian prisoner. They were successful; however, the British feared that Key and Skinner would divulge their plans for attacking Baltimore, and so they detained the two men aboard a truce ship for the duration of the battle. Key thus became an eyewitness to the bombardment of Fort McHenry.

When he saw "by the dawn’s early light" of September 14, 1814, that the American flag soared above the fort, Key knew that Fort McHenry had not surrendered. Moved by the sight, he began to compose a poem on the back of a letter he was carrying. On September 16, Key and his companions were taken back to Baltimore and released. Key took a room in the Indian Queen Hotel and spent the night revising and copying out the four verses he had written about America’s victory. The next day he showed the poem to his wife’s brother-in-law, Judge Joseph Nicholson, who had commanded a volunteer company at Fort McHenry. Nicholson responded enthusiastically and urged Key to have the poem printed. First titled "The Defence of Fort McHenry", the published broadside included instructions that it be sung to the 18th-century British melody "Anacreon in Heaven" — a tune Key had in mind when he penned his poem. Copies of the song were distributed to every man at the fort and around Baltimore. The first documented public performance of the words and music together took place at the Holliday Street Theatre in Baltimore on October 19, 1814. A music store subsequently published the words and music under the title "The Star-Spangled Banner".

During the 19th century, "The Star-Spangled Banner" became one of the nation’s best-loved patriotic songs. It gained special significance during the Civil War, a time when many Americans turned to music to express their feelings for the flag and the ideals and values it represented. By the 1890s, the military had adopted the song for ceremonial purposes, requiring it to be played at the raising and lowering of the colors. In 1917, both the army and the navy designated the song the "national anthem" for ceremonial purposes. Meanwhile, patriotic organizations had launched a campaign to have Congress recognize "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the U.S. national anthem. After several decades of attempts, a bill making "The Star-Spangled Banner" our official national anthem was finally passed by Congress and signed into law by President Herbert Hoover on March 3, 1931.

The Star-Spangled Banner and the Smithsonian

Sometime before his death in 1818, Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead acquired the flag that was immortalized in Key’s poem as the "Star-Spangled Banner". While there exists no documented evidence as to how Armistead came to possess the flag, it is generally understood that he simply kept it as a memento of the triumphant battle.

At the death of Armistead’s widow in 1861, the Star-Spangled Banner was bequeathed to his daughter, Georgiana Armistead Appleton, who recognized that it held national as well as familial significance. As its owner, she permitted the flag to be publicly exhibited on several occasions. Eben Appleton, Armistead’s grandson, inherited the flag from his mother in 1878. Faced with the public’s increasing curiosity about the Star-Spangled Banner, he began to seek an appropriate repository. In 1907, Appleton lent the historic flag to the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1912 he offered the flag as a permanent gift to the nation. He later wrote, "It is always such a satisfaction to me to feel that the flag is just where it is, in possession for all time of the very best custodian, where it is beautifully displayed and can be conveniently seen by so many people".

Snippings from the Star-Spangled Banner

In the late 1800s, souvenirs, or relics, of important events and people in American history became highly prized and collectible objects. The Star-Spangled Banner, historic and celebrated, was subjected to this practice.

The Armistead family received frequent requests for pieces of their flag, but reserved the treasured fragments for veterans, government officials, and other honored citizens. As Georgiana Armistead Appleton noted, "had we given all that we have been importuned for little would be left to show". Despite efforts to limit the practice, however, over two hundred square feet of the Star-Spangled Banner was eventually given away, including one of the stars.

By giving away snippings, the Armisteads could share the Star-Spangled Banner with others who loved the flag. The citizens who received these mementos treated them with reverence and pride. Some framed and displayed these pieces of history in their homes; others donated them to museums. Today, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History has thirteen Star-Spangled Banner fragments in its collections. Since conservators and curators cannot be sure from which part of the flag these fragments were taken, the pieces cannot be integrated back into the flag. However, they can be analyzed, allowing conservators to document changes in the condition of the flag’s fibers and better understand how time and exposure to light and dirt have affected the flag.

1914 Conservation

By the time it arrived at the Smithsonian in 1907, the Star-Spangled Banner was already in a fragile and tattered condition. In 1914, the Smithsonian hired Amelia Fowler, a well-known flag restorer and embroidery teacher, to "resuscitate" the flag. Working with a team of ten needlewomen, Fowler first removed a canvas backing that had been attached to the flag in 1873, when it was displayed and photographed for the first time at the Boston Navy Yard by Admiral George Preble. The women then attached the flag to a new linen backing, sewing approximately 1.7 million interlocking stitches to form a honeycomb-like mesh over the flag’s surface. Fowler’s work took eight weeks (mid-May to mid-July 1914), and she charged the Smithsonian $1243: $243 for materials, $500 for herself, and $500 to be divided among her ten needlewomen.

The flag was then displayed in a glass case in the Smithsonian’s Arts and Industries Building. It remained on view there for nearly 50 years, except for two years during World War II, during which time it was housed in a government warehouse in Virginia, to be protected from possible bombing raids on the nation’s capital. In 1964 the flag was moved to the new National Museum of History and Technology (now the National Museum of American History), where it was displayed in the central hall on the second floor.

1998-2005 Conservation

During the time that the Star-Spangled Banner was displayed in Flag Hall, museum staff recognized that inconsistent temperatures and humidity and high light levels had adversely affected the flag. In 1981, the Smithsonian began a two-year preservation effort: staff vacuumed the flag to reduce accumulated dust, installed new lighting and air-handling systems, and mounted a screen in front of the flag to protect it from light and damaging airborne matter.

By 1994, museum officials recognized the need for further conservation, and in 1996 they began developing a plan to preserve the Star-Spangled Banner using modern, scientific conservation techniques. This most recent preservation effort was formally launched in 1998 with the flag’s inclusion in "Save America’s Treasures", a wide-reaching Millennium preservation project initiated by First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. At this time, the flag was taken down from the wall where it had hung since 1964; in 1999, it was moved to the climate- and light-controlled conservation lab where it remains today.

It took conservators nearly two years to remove Fowler’s stitching and linen backing. Doing so allowed them to see the flag’s true condition and learn more about its construction. They examined the flag’s colors and fibers. They measured stains, holes, and mends, and removed those mends that stressed the fibers. The next step was to remove harmful materials from the flag. Using dry cosmetic sponges, conservators blotted the flag and lifted off much of the surface dirt; its composition offered insights into the flag’s history. After extensive research and analysis, conservators used an acetone/water solution to remove the most harmful contaminants.

In the final phase, to prepare the Star-Spangled Banner for reinstallation in a permanent exhibition gallery, conservators attached a lightweight polyester fabric called Stabiltex to one side. This provides enough support to hold the flag together and allow it to be displayed.

The conservation goal has not been to "restore" or "fix" the flag, but rather to prevent further deterioration.

Future Plans

Conservators and curators have collaborated with architects and engineers to develop a long-term preservation plan for the Star-Spangled Banner. This includes constructing a state-of-the-art flag chamber with a climate-controlled environment and low light levels, and displaying the flag at a shallow angle. All of these features will help preserve the flag for future generations. An opening date for the new gallery and an exhibition on the history of the Star-Spangled Banner and its significance to our nation has not yet been announced.

For further information and references, go to "Star-Spangled Banner and the War of 1812" at the Smithsonian Institution's web site.

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Flag 006 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T17:35:00.000-07:00

The Meaning Of Our Flag
Henry Ward Beecher

If one asks me the meaning of our flag, I say to him: It means just what Concord and Lexington meant, what Bunker Hill meant. It means the whole glorious Revolutionary War. It means all that the Declaration of Independence meant. It means all that the Constitution of our people, organizing for justice, for liberty and for happiness, meant.

Under this banner rode Washington and his armies. Before it Burgoyne laid down his arms. It waved on the highlands at West Point. When Arnold would have surrendered these valuable fortresses and precious legacies, his night was turned into day and his treachery was driven away by beams of light from this starry banner.

It cheered our army, driven out from around New York, and in their painful pilgrimages through New Jersey. This banner streamed in light over the soldiers' heads at Valley Forge and at Morristown. It crossed the waters rolling with ice at Trenton, and when its stars gleamed in the morning with a victory, a new day of hope dawned on the despondency of this nation.

Our Flag carries American ideas, American history and American feelings. Beginning with the Colonies, and coming down to our time, in its sacred heraldry, in its glorious insignia, it has gathered and stored chiefly this supreme idea: divine right of liberty in man. Every color means liberty; every thread means liberty; every form of star and beam or stripe of light means liberty - not lawlessness, but organized, institutional liberty - liberty through law, and laws for liberty!

This American Flag was the safeguard of liberty. Not an atom of crown was allowed to go into its insignia. Not a symbol of authority in the ruler was permitted to go into it. It was an ordinance of liberty by the people, for the people. That it meant, that it means, and, by the blessing of God, that it shall mean to the end of time!

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Flag 007 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T17:30:00.000-07:00

Give Me Liberty Or Give Me Death!
Patrick Henry
March 23, 1775

No man thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.

Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging. And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained — we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!

They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable — and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

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Flag 008 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T17:25:00.000-07:00

You're a Grand Old Flag
by George M. Cohan

You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

You're a grand old flag,
You're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of
The land I love.
The home of the free and the brave.
Ev'ry heart beats true
'neath the Red, White and Blue,
Where there's never a boast or brag.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Keep your eye on the grand old flag.

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Flag 009 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T17:20:00.000-07:00

Quotations About America

"In America any boy may become President and I suppose it's just one of the risks he takes." ~Adlai E. Stevenson Jr, Speech in Indianapolis, 26 Sept. 1952

"There is a New America every morning when we wake up. It is upon us whether we will it or not." ~Adlai E. Stevenson Jr.

"America's greatest strength, and its greatest weakness, is our belief in second chances, our belief that we can always start over, that things can be made better." ~Anthony Walton

"America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair." ~Arnold Toynbee

"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." ~Bill Clinton

"America's one of the finest countries anyone ever stole." ~Bobcat Goldthwaite

"There's the country of America, which you have to defend, but there's also the idea of America. America is more than just a country, it's an idea. An idea that's supposed to be contagious." ~Bono, Oprah Winfrey Show, 2002

"I see America, not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us, I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision." ~Carl Sandburg

"America is the greatest, freest and most decent society in existence. It is an oasis of goodness in a desert of cynicism and barbarism. This country, once an experiment unique in the world, is now the last best hope for the world." ~Dinesh D'Souza

"There is nothing wrong with America that the faith, love of freedom, intelligence and energy of her citizens cannot cure." ~Dwight D. Eisenhower

"America is therefore the land of the future, where, in the ages that lie before us, the burden of the World's History shall reveal itself." ~Georg W. Hegel

"England and America are two countries separated by a common language." ~George Bernard Shaw

"America is a young country with an old mentality." ~George Santayana

"America has never been an empire. We may be the only great power in history that had the chance, and refused – preferring greatness to power and justice to glory." ~George W. Bush, speech, November 19, 1999

"America has never been united by blood or birth or soil. We are bound by ideals that move us beyond our backgrounds, lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens." ~George W. Bush, Inaugural address, 2001

"In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. That is what makes America what it is." ~Gertrude Stein, The Geographical History of America (1936)

"What's right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity - intellect and resources - to do something about them." ~Henry Ford II

"America - a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose." ~Herbert Hoover

"This is the story of America. Everybody's doing what they think they're supposed to do." ~Jack Kerouac, On the Road

"In a country as big as the United States, you can find fifty examples of anything." ~Jeffery F. Chamberlain

"Our American values are not luxuries but necessities, not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself. Our common vision of a free and just society is our greatest source of cohesion at home and strength abroad, greater than the bounty of our material blessings." ~Jimmy Carter

"I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth." ~John Adams

"I believe America's best days are ahead of us because I believe that the future belongs to freedom, not to fear." ~John Kerry

"America is a vast conspiracy to make you happy." ~John Updike, Problems and Other Stories

"There are three social classes in America: upper middle class, middle class, and lower middle class." ~Judith Martin (Miss Manners)

"The thing that impresses me the most about America is the way parents obey their children." ~King Edward VIII

"America is a country that doesn't know where it is going but is determined to set a speed record getting there." ~Laurence J. Peter

"America has believed that in differentiation, not in uniformity, lies the path of progress. It acted on this belief; it has advanced human happiness, and it has prospered." ~Louis D. Brandeis

"America is not merely a nation but a nation of nations." ~Lyndon B. Johnson

"Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy." ~Margaret Thatcher

"Europe will never be like America. Europe is a product of history. America is a product of philosophy." ~Margaret Thatcher

"What a pity, when Christopher Colombus discovered America, that he ever mentioned it." ~Margot Asquith

"It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more wonderful to miss it." ~Mark Twain

"America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up." ~Oscar Wilde

"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between." ~Oscar Wilde

"All great change in America begins at the dinner table." ~Ronald Reagan

"I don't measure America by its achievement but by its potential." ~Shirley Chisholm

"America is a mistake, a giant mistake." ~Sigmund Freud

"Intellectually, I know that America is no better than any other country; emotionally I know she is better than every other country." ~Sinclair Lewis

"I just want to say this. I want to say it gently but I want to say it firmly: There is a tendency for the world to say to America, 'the big problems of the world are yours, you go and sort them out,' and then to worry when America wants to sort them out." ~Tony Blair

"Other lands have their vitality in a few, a class, but we have it in the bulk of our people." ~Walt Whitman

"The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people." ~Walt Whitman

"America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses." ~Woodrow Wilson

"Just what is it that America stands for? If she stands for one thing more than another it is for the sovereignty of self-governing people." ~Woodrow Wilson

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Flag 010 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T17:15:00.000-07:00

Betsy's Battle-Flag
by Minna Irving

From dusk till dawn the livelong night
She kept the tallow dips alight,
And fast her nimble fingers flew
To sew the stars upon the blue.
With weary eyes and aching head
She stitched the stripes of white and red,
And when the day came up the stair
Complete across a carven chair
Hung Betsy's battle-flag.
Like shadows in the evening gray
The Continentals filed away,
With broken boots and ragged coats,
But hoarse defiance in their throats;
They bore the marks of want and cold,
And some were lame and some were old,
And some with wounds untended bled,
But floating bravely overhead
Was Betsy's battle-flag.

When fell the battle's leaden rain,
The soldier hushed his moans of pain
And raised his dying head to see
King George's troopers turn and flee.
Their charging column reeled and broke,
And vanished in the rolling smoke,
Before the glory of the stars,
The snowy stripes, and scarlet bars
Of Betsy's battle-flag.

The simple stone of Betsy Ross
Is covered now with mould and moss,
But still her deathless banner flies,
And keeps the color of the skies.
A nation thrills, a nation bleeds,
A nation follows where it leads,
And every man is proud to yield
His life upon a crimson field
For Betsy's battle-flag!

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Flag 011 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T17:10:00.000-07:00

Daniel Webster Speaks at Bunker Hill
by Samuel Griswold Goodrich

The first time I ever saw Mr. Webster was on the 17th of June, 1825, at the laying of the corner-stone of the Bunker Hill Monument. I shall never forget his appearance as he strode across the open area, encircled by some fifty thousand persons—men and women, waiting for the "Orator of the Day," nor the shout that simultaneously burst forth, as he was recognized, carrying up to the skies the name of "Webster!" "Webster!" "Webster!"

It was one of those lovely days in June, when the sun is bright, the air clear, and the breath of nature so sweet and pure as to fill every bosom with a grateful joy in the mere consciousness of existence. There were present long files of soldiers in their holiday attire; there were many associations, with their mottoed banners; there were lodges and grand lodges, in white aprons and blue scarfs; there were miles of citizens from the towns and the country round about; there were two hundred gray-haired men, remnants of the days of the Revolution.

Mr. Webster was in the very zenith of his fame and of his powers.

There was a grandeur in his form, an intelligence in his deep dark eye, a loftiness in his expansive brow, a significance in his arched lip, altogether beyond those of any other human being I ever saw. And these, on the occasion to which I allude, had their full expression and interpretation.

When he came to address the few scarred and time-worn veterans, some forty in number, who had shared in the bloody scene which all had now gathered to commemorate, he paused a moment, and, as he uttered the words "Venerable men," his voice trembled, and I could see a cloud pass over the sea of faces that turned upon the speaker.

He said: "Our poor work may perish, but thine shall endure: this monument may moulder away, the solid ground it rests upon may sink down to the level of the sea; but thy memory shall not fail. Wherever among men a heart shall be found that beats to the transports of patriotism and liberty, its aspirations shall claim kindred with thy spirit!"

I have never seen such an effect, from a single passage. Lifted as by inspiration, every breast seemed now to expand, every gaze to turn above, every face to beam with a holy yet exulting enthusiasm. It was the omnipotence of eloquence, which, like the agitated sea, carries a host upon its waves, sinking and swelling with its irresistible undulations.

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Flag 012 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T17:05:00.000-07:00

The Flag Goes By
by Henry Holcomb Bennett

Hats off! Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A flash of color beneath the sky:
Hats off! The flag is passing by!

Blue and crimson and white it shines
Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines.
Hats off! The colors before us fly
But more than the flag is passing by.

Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,
Fought to make and to save the State:
Weary marches and sinking ships;
Cheers of victory on dying lips;

Days of plenty and years of peace;
March of a strong land's swift increase;
Equal justice, right and law,
Stately honor and reverend awe;

Sign of a nation, great and strong
To ward her people from foreign wrong:
Pride and glory and honor, --all
Live in the colors to stand or fall.

Hats off! Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums;
And loyal hearts are beating high:
Hats off! The flag is passing by!

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Flag 013 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T17:00:00.000-07:00

Patriotic Quotations I

"We can't all be Washingtons, but we can all be patriots." ~Charles F. Browne

"Patriotism is not short, frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime." ~Adlai Stevenson

"When an American says that he loves his country, he means not only that he loves the New England hills, the prairies glistening in the sun, the wide and rising plains, the great mountains, and the sea. He means that he loves an inner air, an inner light in which freedom lives and in which a man can draw the breath of self-respect." ~Adlai Stevenson

"I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country." ~Nathan Hale, last words, 22 September 1776 (attributed)

"We do not consecrate the flag by punishing its desecration, for in doing so we dilute the freedom that this cherished emblem represents." ~Supreme Court decision, Texas v. Johnson

"There are those, I know, who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream. They are right. It is the American dream." ~Archibald MacLeish

"May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country!" ~Daniel Webster

"And so, my fellow americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." ~John F. Kennedy, Inaugural address, January 20, 1961

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave." ~Elmer Davis

"Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow — red, yellow, brown, black and white — and we're all precious in God's sight." ~Jesse Jackson

"The cement of this union is the heart-blood of every American." ~Thomas Jefferson

"Ours is the only country deliberately founded on a good idea." ~John Gunther

"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." ~Benjamin Franklin

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Flag 014 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T16:55:00.000-07:00

The Gettysburg Address
President Abraham Lincoln
November 19, 1863

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

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Flag 015 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T16:50:00.000-07:00

The Battle Hymn of the Republic
Words by Julia Ward Howe
Music by John William Steffe (?)

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel;
“As ye deal with My contemners, so with you My grace shall deal”;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Since God is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet;
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free;
While God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is wisdom to the mighty, He is honor to the brave;
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of wrong His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah! Our God is marching on.

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Flag 016 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

Lincoln's Letter to Mrs. Bixby

November 21, 1864

Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts.

Dear Madam: I have been shown in the files of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.

Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
Abraham Lincoln

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Flag 017 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

The Meaning of "Old Glory"

"Old Glory" is a common nickname for the flag of the United States, bestowed by upon it by William Driver, an early 19th century American sea captain. It also refers specifically to the flag owned by Driver, which has become one of the country's most treasured historical artifacts.

Early History

The original "Old Glory" was made and presented to the young Captain Driver by his mother and some young ladies of his native Salem, Massachusetts. The year is uncertain, but it was probably sometime in the 1820s. It is a large flag, measuring 10 feet by 17 feet, having 24 stars, heavily constructed, having been designed to be flown from a ship's mast. The captain was very pleased with his gift, and kept it with him always.

By most accounts, he first hailed the flag as "Old Glory" when he left harbor for a trip around the world in 1831-1832, as commander of the whaling vessel Charles Doggett. "Old Glory" served as the ship's official flag throughout the voyage. Some weathering and fraying almost certainly occurred during this severe service, and the flag shows evidence of patching on more than one occasion.

During the Civil War

Driver retired from the sea in 1837 and moved to Nashville, Tennessee. He flew his beloved flag on all patriotic occasions, using a rope suspended across the street, and "Old Glory" thereby became well known to Nashville's citizenry.

In 1861, his wife (or possibly his daughter) modified it to show 34 stars, the number of states then in the Union.

When the Civil War broke out and Tennessee seceded from the Union, Driver feared that the rebel Confederate government would attempt to destroy the locally-famous "Old Glory". He therefore had the flag sewn inside a comforter to conceal it. When Union forces retook Nashville the following year, Driver brought his beloved flag out from hiding, and hoisted it from the state capitol spire, the final time that it would fly from a flagpole. A unit of Federal troops, the Sixth Ohio Regiment, was present at this flag raising, and accordingly adopted "Old Glory" as their motto. These dramatic events were reported by many newspapers, and "Old Glory" became nationally famous.

After the Civil War

Driver passed "Old Glory" on to his daughter, Mary Jane Driver Roland, on the occasion of her marriage in 1873, and continued living in Nashville until his death in 1886.

Mary Jane and her husband Charles, a Union veteran, later moved to Wells, Nevada, where they occasionally displayed the flag. Around 1907, Mary Jane sewed the deteriorating flag to a bedsheet in order to stabilize it, and subsequently took it with her when she moved to California.

In 1922, Mary Jane presented the flag to President Warren G. Harding. The President replied with a formal letter of thanks, and transferred Old Glory to the Smithsonian Institution, where it remained for 80 years.

The Nashville Exhibit

In 2006, the Smithsonian acceded to a request from the Tennessee State Museum to display "Old Glory" in Nashville once again. Coupled with other related artifacts and memorabilia from the state library and archives, it is being shown from March to November, in an exhibit entitled "Old Glory: An American Treasure Comes Home". Due to its age and fragility, officials of the Smithsonian have stated that once the Nashville exhibit closes, it will never be permitted to travel again.

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Flag 018 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T16:35:00.000-07:00

Barbara Frietchie
by John Greenleaf Whittier

Up from the meadows rich with corn,
Clear in the cool September morn,

The clustered spires of Frederick stand
Green-walled by the hills of Maryland.

Round about them orchards sweep,
Apple and peach tree fruited deep,

Fair as the garden of the Lord
To the eyes of the famished rebel horde,

On that pleasant morn of early fall
When Lee marched over the mountain wall;

Over the mountains winding down,
Horse and foot, into Frederick town.

Forty flags with their silver stars
Forty flag with their crimson bars,

Flapped in the morning wind; the sun
Of noon looked down, and saw not one.

Up rose old Barbara Frietchie then,
Bowed with her fourscore years and ten;

Bravest of all in Frederick town,
She took up the flag the men hauled down;

In her attic window the staff she set,
To show that one heart was loyal yet.

Up the street came the rebel tread,
Stonewall Jackson riding ahead.

Under his slouched hat left and right
He glanced; the old flag met his sight.

"Halt!" - the dust-brown ranks stood fast.
"Fire!" - out blazed the rifle-blast.

It shivered the window, pane and sash;
It rent the banner with seam and gash.

Quick, as it fell, from the broken staff
Dame Barbara snatched the silken scarf.

She leaned far out on the window-sill,
And shook it forth with a royal will.

"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag," she said.

A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;

The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word;

"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.

All day long through Frederick street
Sounded the tread of marching feet;

All day long that free flag tost
Over the heads of the rebel host.

Ever its torn folds rose and fell
On the loyal winds that loved it well;

And through the hill-gaps sunset light
Shone over it with a warm good-night.

Barbara Frietchie's work is o'er,
And the Rebel rides on his raids no more.

Honor to her! and let a tear
Fall, for her sake, on Stonewall's bier.

Over Barbara Frietchie's grave,
Flag of Freedom and Union, wave!

Peace and order and beauty draw
Round thy symbol of light and law;

And ever the stars above look down
On thy stars below in Frederick town!

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Flag 019 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance

During his television show of January 14, 1969, comedian Red Skelton related the following commentary on the Pledge of Allegiance. His commentary has been read into the Congressional Record twice, and has received numerous awards.

"I remember this one teacher. To me, he was the greatest teacher, a real sage of my time. He had such wisdom.

We were all reciting the Pledge Of Allegiance and he walked over. Mr. Lasswell was his name.

He said, 'I've been listening to you boys and girls recite the Pledge Of Allegiance all semester and it seems as though it is becoming monotonous to you. If I may, may I recite it and try to explain to you the meaning of each word?

I ~ Me; an individual; a committee of one.

Pledge ~ Dedicate all of my worldly goods to give without self-pity.

Allegiance ~ My love and my devotion.

To the Flag ~ Our standard; Old Glory ; a symbol of Freedom; wherever she waves there is respect, because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts, Freedom is everybody's job!.

Of the United ~ That means that we have all come together.

States ~ Individual communities that have united into forty-eight great states. Forty-eight individual communities with pride and dignity and purpose. All divided with imaginary boundaries, yet united to a common purpose, and that is love for country.

Of America

And to the Republic ~ Republic - a state in which sovereign power is invested in representatives chosen by the people to govern. And government is the people; and it's from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people.

For which it stands

One Nation ~ One Nation - meaning, so blessed by God.

Indivisible ~ Incapable of being divided.

With Liberty ~ Which is Freedom; the right of power to live one's own life, without threats, fear, or some sort of retaliation.

And Justice ~ The principle, or quality, of dealing fairly with others.

For All ~ For All - which means, boys and girls, it's as much your country as it is mine.

And now, boys and girls, let me hear you recite the Pledge of Allegiance:

I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic, for which it stands; one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country, and two words have been added to the Pledge of Allegiance: Under God. Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that is a prayer, and that would be eliminated from schools, too?'"

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Flag 020 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

The Flag
by Julia Ward Howe

There's a flag hangs over my threshold, whose folds are more dear to me
Than the blood that thrills in my bosom its earnest of liberty;
And dear are the stars it harbors in its sunny field of blue
As the hope of a further heaven that lights all our dim lives through.

But now should my guests be merry, the house is in holiday guise,
Looking out, through its burnished windows like a score of welcoming eyes.
Come hither, my brothers who wander in saintliness and in sin!
Come hither, ye pilgrims of Nature! my heart doth invite you in.

My win is not of the choicest, yet bears it an honest brand;
And the bread that I bid you lighten I break with no sparing hand;
But pause, ere you pass to taste it, one act must accomplished be:
Salute the flag in its virtue, before ye sit down with me.

The flag of our stately battles, not struggles of wrath and greed:
Its stripes were a holy lesson, its spangles a deathless creed;
'Twas red with the blood of freemen, and white with the fear of the foe,
And the stars that fight in their courses 'gainst tyrants its symbols know.

Come hither, thou son of my mother! we were reared in the selfsame arms;
Thou hast many a pleasant gesture, thy mind hath its fights and charms,
But my heart is as stern to question as mine eyes are of sorrows full:
Salute the flag in its virtue, or pass on where others rule.

Thou lord of a thousand acres, with heaps of uncounted gold,
The steeds of thy stall are haughty, thy lackeys cunning and bold:
I envy no jot of thy splendor, I rail at thy follies none:
Salute the flag in its virtue, or leave my poor house alone.

Fair lady with silken trappings, high waving thy stainless plume,
We welcome thee to our numbers, a flower of costliest bloom:
Let a hundred maids live widowed to furnish thy bridal bed;
But pause where the flag doth question, and bend thy triumphant head.

Take down now your flaunting banner, for a scout comes breathless and pale,
With the terror death upon him; of failure is all his tale:
"They have fled while the flag waved o'er them! they have turned to the foe their back!
They are scattered, pursued, and slaughtered! the fields are all rout and wrack!"

Pass hence, then, the friends I gathered, a goodly company!
All ye that have manhood in you, go, perish for Liberty!
But I and the babes God gave me will wait with uplifted hearts,
With the firm smile ready to kindle, and the will to perform our parts.

When the last true heart lies bloodless, when the fierce and the false have won,
I'll press in turn to my bosom each daughter and either son;
Bid them loose the flag from its bearings, and we'll lay us down to rest
With the glory of home about us, and its freedom locked in our breast.

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2006-08-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

Quotations About Americans

"Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic." ~Dan Rather

"I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American." ~Daniel Webster

"Americans never quit." ~General Douglas Macarthur

"Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for President. One hopes it is the same half." ~Gore Vidal

"Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public." ~H. L. Mencken

"George Washington had a vision for this country. Was it three days of uninterrupted shopping?" ~Jeff Melvoin

"The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly." ~John F. Kennedy

"Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other lousy two percent that get all the publicity. But then--we elected them." ~Lily Tomlin

"An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven't been done before." ~Mark Twain

"In America, anybody can be president. That's one of the risks you take." ~Adlai Stevenson

"Great Britain and the United States are two nations separated by a common language." ~George Bernard Shaw

"Everyone has a right to a university degree in America, even if it's in Hamburger Technology." ~Clive James

"In the United States there is more space where nobody is than where anybody is. This is what makes America what it is." ~Gertrude Stein

"A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election." ~Bill Vaughan

"The IQ and the life expectancy of the average American recently passed each other going in opposite directions." ~George Carlin

"It's complicated, being an American, having the money and the bad conscience, both at the same time." ~Louis Simpson

"America is a large friendly dog in a small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair." ~Arnold Joseph Toynbee

"America's one of the finest countries anyone ever stole." ~Bobcat Goldthwaite

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2006-08-15T16:15:00.000-07:00

America the Beautiful
Words by Katharine Lee Bates
Music by Samuel Ward

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for halcyon skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the enameled plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till souls wax fair as earth and air
And music-hearted sea!

O beautiful for pilgrims feet,
Whose stem impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till paths be wrought through
wilds of thought
By pilgrim foot and knee!

O beautiful for glory-tale
Of liberating strife
When once and twice,
for man's avail
Men lavished precious life!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till selfish gain no longer stain
The banner of the free!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
Till nobler men keep once again
Thy whiter jubilee!

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Flag 023 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T16:10:00.000-07:00

An American Without Reserve
by Daniel Webster

I was born an American; I live an American; I shall die an American; and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my career. I mean to do this with absolute disregard of personal consequences.

What are the personal consequences? What is the individual man, with all the good or evil that may betide him, in comparison with the good or evil which may befall a great country, and in the midst of great transactions which concern that country's fate?

Let the consequences be what they will, I am careless. No man can suffer too much, and no man can fall too soon, if he suffer, or if he fall, in the defense of the liberties and constitution of his country.

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Flag 024 (800 x 600)

2006-08-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

I Have A Dream
Martin Luther King, Jr.
August 28, 1963

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

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2006-08-15T16:00:00.000-07:00