Tag Archives: pledge of allegiance

Hurrah for the Red, White & Blue: Fun Flag Facts!

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Hurrah for the Red, White & Blue! The flag of the United States of America holds so much history and folklore it intrigues me. I thought I would share a few Fun Flag Facts on this 4th of July.

The red, white and blue have significant meaning for the flag. The white symbolizes purity and innocence. Blue stands for vigilance, perseverance and justice. The red represents hardiness and valor.

Seventeen year old Robert G. Heft designed the flag we recognize today. Hawaii and Alaska were due to become the last two states and Heft created the 50-star flag as part of a history project. He received a B- for his effort. He then submitted it to Congress for consideration and President Eisenhower chose his design over 1,500 other entries! Eisenhower called Heft on the telephone to tell him the good news. His teacher also changed his grade to an appropriate “A”.

The name, Old Glory, was the nickname of a U.S. flag owned by William Driver, a sea captain. Women in his hometown of Salem, Massachusetts had given him the flag for his ship but he didn’t give it the name Old Glory until he saw it flying on his ship’s mast in 1831. The term is still popular today.

An interesting TV fact about the flag: If you are a Gilligan’s Island fan you can see the U.S. Flag flying at half-staff off in the distance in the opening sequence of the first season episodes (about 22 seconds in). The pilot episode finished filming on November 22, 1963, the same day that President Kennedy was assassinated.

Bernard J. Cigrand, 19 and a teacher from Waubeka, Wisconsin, proposed the idea for a Flag Day. His reasoning: “…to inspire not only the students but also all Americans in the real meaning and majesty of our flag.” Cigrand wrote hundreds of articles for his convincing argument to celebrate June 14 as national Flag Day.

amercian independence day vector flagFrancis Bellamy, the author of the Pledge of Allegiance, was an editor at the Youth’s Companion magazine. He created it in 1892 to help students commemorate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ voyage to the New World. He wanted to help immigrant children, and the children of immigrants, build loyalty to the United States. In its original form it read:

“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

In 1923, the words, “the Flag of the United States of America” were added. At this time it read:

“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.”

In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words “under God,” creating the 31-word pledge we say today. Today it reads:

“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.”

Originally, students were taught to salute the flag with their right hand, palm downward and extended forward! But on June 22, 1942, Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance by including it in the U.S. Flag Code. They changed the salute to the hand over the heart because the original too closely resembled the Nazi Germany “Heil Hitler” salute.

On September 13, 1988, the Pledge of Allegiance was recited for the first time on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. On June 24, 1999, the U.S. Senate then adopted the daily recital of the Pledge.

On Memorial Day, the American flag is flown at half-staff until noon. The same takes place on Patriot Day, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day and for 30 days after the death of a President or ten days following the death of a Vice President, former Vice President, member of the Cabinet, or Chief Justice.

There are specific requirements for display of the U.S. flag:

  • The flag should be displayed from sunrise to sunset and if on display at night it should be illuminated.
  • The flag is never to touch the ground or the floor.
  • It should be raised quickly and lowered ceremoniously.
  • If displayed on a wall or window the blue field must be in the upper left corner.

Here are the lyrics to Stars & Stripes Forever:

Hurrah for the flag of the free!
May it wave as our standard forever,
The gem of the land and the sea,
The banner of the right.
Let despots remember the day
When our fathers with mighty endeavor
Proclaimed as they marched to the fray
That by their might and by their right
It waves forever.
~John Phillips Sousa

Enjoy your holiday with your friends and family. Be sure and take a moment to be thankful for the freedoms we are blessed to have. Praying we remain the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

Happy Independence Day!


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We Don’t Do The Church Thing…

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We don’t do the Church Thing…This little post of less than 1,000 words, hit home with so many people. It was the closest to “viral” we will probably get! (smile) And most importantly, a few lives were changed. Some went back to church, some renewed their relationship with Almighty God. I pray you will be blessed and feel free to share. You never know what it might do!

It was one of those conversations that you could have any day of the week.

You could be in the grocery store, doctor’s office, on the playground, it doesn’t really matter. You’ve just met a stranger, easy to talk to, you start with small talk about your families.

I had one of those. It was life-changing.

She was a sweetheart. A mother of two, she worked five days a week, came home, cooked dinner and helped with homework. Then spent the rest of the evening doing the usual chores; baths, packing lunches, laundry, normal things we all do, day in, day out.

She talked about how blessed her children were to have such a wonderful school to attend. They still said the Pledge of Allegiance…she stressed the real Pledge of Allegiance with “under God”. They were even still allowed to attend a weekly, church-sanctioned, afternoon Bible class. Yes, this is a public school. She went on and on about how safe they felt there, how her parents lived just up the road; life just couldn’t be much better.

Then, I guess I unintentionally backed her in a corner when I said something about church. With everything she had just described about her life I just assumed she attended.

She said, “Oh, we have Bibles in our house, but we don’t do the church thing.”

And before I had a chance to say anything, she stumbled, mumbled, and said, “Well, we are just busy on the weekends and all…” and with that she found an excuse to make a quick exit.

Now, before you fill my comment box up with “We don’t have to go to church to feel God…”, you are correct, we sure don’t. I will get to that in a moment. Bear with me here, I was actually more saddened by the “We have Bibles IN our house….” because I could tell by the way she said it that those Bibles probably didn’t get read any more than the children were getting taken to Sunday School.

It was wonderful that she was so happy that her children were in a good school that paid honor to God, and in a good community that still allowed God in the schools, a rarity in our country. But for all of her commendations to her school and her community, she had left the King of Kings out of her home. The Bibles were there but they weren’t being used.

That may be true of many church-going Christians and that is a dangerous place to be. The Word truly is a “lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path.” Without it, we stumble and fall and blindly lose our way.

I may be taking a few liberties here since I do not personally know this stranger but “We don’t do the church thing” is speaking a mouthful to me.

  • Has she been hurt somewhere before?
  • Disillusioned?
  • Lost her faith along the way?
  • Can’t bring herself to trust in leadership?
  • Or is it laziness?
  • The American “sleep-in-on-Sunday” culture, or the attitude that says, “I’ll do it my way, I don’t need the church.”

Because, my friend, we DO need the Body of Christ, we need the community and the unity that comes from the assembling of ourselves together. (Hebrews 10:25)

We must hear the preaching of the Word of God! “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?”

And in answer to those that have been hurt, abused, lied to, and misled in a church house somewhere on this planet, as a former pastor’s wife, my sincerest apologies. That should never be in the House of God.

But Jesus did not do it, people did.

People are just people and unfortunately they are still people in the church too. You will find the complainers, the naysayers, the gossipers, backbiters, liars, chew-you-up-and-spit-you-out-haters. I’ve seen them all and still had to hug their neck the next Sunday! And let us not forget the good ole hypocrites. Yes, they are there too. Where else would they be but in church?!

It would be a terrible shame to let people keep you from coming  face to face with Jesus of Nazareth.

Don’t let a few busybodies keep you from your worship of the King.

(If you are one that has offended people, hurt them, caused them to leave the church, there is no excuse for this type of behavior in the church. God is not pleased. But He does forgive! Seek that forgiveness with sincere repentance today.)

There are plenty of great churches that preach Truth. Go find one!

It’s worth it to be able to stand up in service with tears streaming down your face, hands raised in worship and actually feel the presence of Almighty God as you offer Him praise, just because He is worthy.

My friend, one day we will all stand before Him. It does not matter who you are, or your social status.

You will be there.

You won’t be late. We will all be there.

We will call Him Lord then, we will all call Him by Name.

For some, He will return the favor.

Others He will say, “Depart from me, I never knew you…”

I wonder if some will be the ones that had Bibles in their homes but didn’t DO the CHURCH THING?

For the Kingdom

 

 

I am Proud to be a Skibo!

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Smithville is just a little curve on the map. Southern Indiana is made more beautiful by Lake Monroe and you just have to drive south through Smithville  to get there. Small town life was wonderful, growing up in the country, but access to Indiana University, just fifteen minutes away, gave us a wide variety of educational opportunities.

When I started school in the mid-sixties, kindergarten wasn’t required for another couple of years. We were still blessed to be able to stay at the same school until graduation. You had one teacher for each grade up through the fifth grade. We still recited the pledge of allegiance every morning before school began and I also remember in the first and second grades my teachers even prayed with us before class! My, how times have changed.

A school’s greatest pride was their mascot. It stood for strength, stability, endurance, sportsmanship, loyalty, and yes, even MANHOOD. Schools had big and strong mascots like lions, and tigers and bears, oh my! I couldn’t resist. Menacing animals on the prowl such as cougars, panthers, and wolves, along with the bulldogs, rams and even the soaring eagles, were stately mascots that any school would be proud to have.

Present at most sporting events, his job was to get the crowd excited before the team came out and the game began. Then he would usually stay with the cheerleaders and entertain the spectators in the bleachers throughout the game. And at halftime? Well, he was ready to go!

Smithville was no exception when it came to school pride. Now whether all of the other mascots were taken at the turn of the century I do not know. I like to think our school overflowed with originality. Surely they knew their mascot would be the brunt of jokes, would be laughed at, poked fun at, and forever the stigma would follow them when the big double doors would open and out would waddle…….. a SKIBO, “What in the world is a SKIBO?!”

To Smithville School a Skibo was a Penguin, the cutest black and white, tuxedo-clad little guy that would become the center of pride and joy for the community for decades.  The only other reference to the word Skibo that can even be found anywhere on the internet is to the Skibo Castle in Scotland! Two meanings for the name are mentioned, one which in turn comes from an Old Norse name meaning firewood steading and the other derives from the word schytherbolle, which is Gaelic for fairyland.

image-1I highly doubt the Smithville Skibo got its name from the Scottish Castle so I guess we will forever speculate about its origin. The Smithville Historic Society has a wonderful collection of memorabilia and even one of the local historians, Rosemary Wisely, acknowledged there is no record of the decision-making process for the name of the famed mascot. And if memory serves me correct, the Skibo was even affectionately named, “Sammy”, he just becomes more fearless all the time…

Now before you think I am making light of my beloved alma mater, let me set the record straight in more ways than one. Smithville played some mean basketball! They have a room full of trophies in Historic Redman Hall as living proof that time and time again that Skibo shuffled his way out on the gymnasium floor, worked that crowd into a fevered frenzy and then those boys played Indiana basketball! Hoosiers love their basketball and the Skibo’s lived up to the title. We were Skibo-proud!

It didn’t matter to the Smithville team what their mascot looked like, they had team spirit. And team spirit took precedence over looks. When they were unified they could do anything and they proved it every time they got on that court.  I was still in the sixth grade when the powers-that-be re-districted and decided some of the smaller outlying schools were going to have to close down their middle and high schools and send them into the city. I can remember going to the last few games, those players were bigger than life to me, literally and figuratively. And all too soon a way of life was about to become a thing of the past.

Even though the Skibo was different, it didn’t matter to the kids at Smithville. They were willing to endure the humiliation, the guffaws, the laughs and the hee-haws to prove that they were just as good as the next guy. You may think I am grasping at straws today but really I’m not. I wasn’t having a slow day either. I was having a nostalgic day. I’m intrigued by the underdog and those that associate with such heroes.

I was reminded of another such champion this weekend…

He wasn’t popular, He wasn’t fierce, He certainly wasn’t a superhero to the Sanhedrin, the Romans and those that were determined to see Him nailed to a tree. He didn’t come into this world as a King, He came as a baby. He didn’t make His triumphant entry as a conquering general but as a lowly servant on a young colt.

To call it a Triumphant Entry to a Roman would have been a slap in the face! Only a Roman general would have been worthy of that honor having won a complete victory and killed at least 5,000 enemy soldiers.  When the general returned to Rome from battle he would be honored with an elaborate parade. There were treasures captured from the enemy and then the prisoners were marched in front of the crowd. His soldiers marched by and then the general himself rode in a golden chariot pulled by magnificent horses. Even some prisoners were thrown to wild animals as entertainment for the crowd. This was considered a Triumphant Entry, not Jesus sitting on a pony.

He was a true Champion. And yet He was not seeking fame. He didn’t have to. He was the Savior of the world. Yet He suffered, He grieved, He was tormented! All of the humiliation and insults He endured were  for you and me. “Who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself  to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness— by whose stripes you were healed.” 1 Peter 2:23-24.

Forever we will be indebted to the One who paid the price and gave His life so we wouldn’t have to. The stone was rolled away. But Easter didn’t end over the weekend; it just began with the empty tomb! He arose, He sent the Comforter, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, Christ in you the Hope of Glory! This is the promise that He is coming back to get us and our assurance that we can rise to meet Him again.

If you’re ever in Southern Indiana and are curious to see a Skibo, holler for Rosemary, she can take you to Smithville!