Flag Day
Adopted as the flag of the United States of America by the Flag Resolution of 1777 enacted on 14 June, 1777.
The flag was first flown from Fort Stanwix, on the site of the present city of Rome, New York, on August 3, 1777. It was first under fire three days later in the Battle of Oriskany, August 6, 1777.
An official flag has a rise to run ratio of 1 to 1.9 [the flag should be 1.9 times as long as it is high] with the canton [the dark blue part] that rises over the top seven stripes with a run of 40% of the flag’s run.
The only time you will see a “correct” US Flag is if you see the official colors of a military unit. Most flags are 3’X5′ or 4’X6′ instead of 3’X5.7′ or 4’X7.6′.
Frances Bellamy, the Baptist minister and socialist who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance was from Rome, New York.
5 comments
The Pledge was written by a socialist? Don’t tell the “under God” people; they’ll lose their lunch, one direction or the other.
The last time I saw correctly proportioned flags was on 7/21/2001, which is Founders’ Day in Olympia, WA. (It also happened to be Stella’s big birthday ending in zero; I won’t say which.) Their parade (Stella’s birthday parade, of course) had at least a dozen military units and/or military bands marching in it, all with the proper “long” flags. It looked grand. The flag recast as golden rectangle (which regrettably describes all of them that I own) loses something. Francis Bacon wrote, “There is no excellent beauty, that hath not some strangeness in the proportion,” and w.r.t. the American flag, of which for obvious reasons he knew nothing, he was surely right.
Oops. I guess I entered a trip-word in my comment. Good thing your filter doesn’t set off an IED…
Well that was annoying. Would you believe socialist? That flood is apparently over, so I removed the word. You certainly can’t have a proper rabid lamb blog where no one is allowed to say “socialist,” although it makes for a good conspiracy theory.
If anyone is looking for early socialist literature, I could recommend books by Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. They might also consider that the Revolution changed the flag from one with two crosses to none. [The red saltire was added after we left.]
It’s amazing with all of the brouhaha about the flag only the military is required to follow the specifications.
It may not be the correct size, but my flag is on display on my apartment balcony today all the same.
Technically, Michael, since you aren’t in the military, you can use any vaguely similar design.
I’m going to steal some of your stuff as soon as I get a chance, the Obama/Powell and scholarship posts.