Rant #1,924: Holiday

Today, June 14, is a holiday, but I bet most of you didn't know that, because with patriotism in short supply nowadays, holidays to celebrate our flag don't seem to rate on the "sexy" scale as they perhaps once did.

The holiday I am talking about is Flag Day, which commemorates the adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the flag of our country. This is the 240th anniversary of this measure, which passed by resolution of the Second Continental Congress on June 14, 1777.

I remember that as a kid, this was a special day in school. We would learn all about our flag, and how our country went from 13 colonies all the way up to 50 states.

We would learn how to properly care for the flag, and there was usually a ceremony featuring locally based soldiers or policemen showing us how to fold the flag in the right way.

I also remember that individuals would fly the flag today, proudly showing off our flag, which stands for so much.

Yes, way back when, Flag Day was a big deal.

Today, it is just another day on the calendar, or it seems like it is.

Kids are ready to get out of school, and generally, people are too busy to even think about our flag on its special day.

Our flag stands for so much. It stands for freedom, it stands for strength. It stands for bravery. It stands for the very tenets that have allowed us to live like we do.

Yes, some people mock our flag, and some people even desecrate it.

The courts have said that that is their right.

But the reason that is their right constitute the very ideas that the flag that they are destroying stand for.

Without freedom, flags could not be destroyed, which is something that those who do things like this simply do not understand.

When my grandparents came to this country, they saw in the flag the land of opportunity, something that they could not experience in Europe.

They came here--three of them did, my grandmother on my mother's side was born here--with the very idea that this is where they wanted to live, this is where they wanted to eventually raise their families, this is where they wanted to pledge allegiance to.

And they did just that, becoming citizens as quickly as they could.

They learned the language without giving up their heritage.

Yes, it actually can be done.

They raised successful children, who eventually gave them grandchildren, and really, the rest is history.

The flag stands for all of that, and when Americans knock the very country that they live in, it really is like the proverbial biting the hand that feeds you.

Yes, not everything is right in this country, but where else would you rather be than here?

In these times, the word "respect" seems to be in very short supply.

People have no clue what it means, and they abuse their privilege to speak out and yes, to rant and rave about things that they really have no clue about.

It is time to learn respect again.

If you cannot abide by the laws of this country, if this country makes you so uncomfortable that it affects your very being, there are many other places you can go.

Please do.

Let's learn respect again, and let's learn to be patriotic.

Flag Day is a good place to start.