In 2017, my wife and I visited Charleston, S.C., and decided to tour Fort Sumter. As it happened, we were the first tour group to visit the fort after it had been closed for two weeks following Hurricane Irma. When we arrived at this historic sea fort, we were invited to help raise the 20 x 36-foot U.S. flag. It was quite an experience. As a Civil War enthusiast, I confess to being moved by the sight of this Grand Old Flag being raised over the place where our Civil War began in 1861.

This patriotic moment prompted me to reflect on another time I raised the U.S. flag on a pole.

In September 1963, I started seventh grade. I served as Captain of the School Patrols, a select group of students responsible for manning the crosswalks around our elementary school. In the 1960s, Georgia did not have middle schools. I would begin high school the following year as an eighth grader. But for now, my “senior” year at Toney Elementary had me supervising the other students who were part of the school patrol. My last duty every morning was to raise the flag in front of the school. 

The flag-raising duty was important. I had been trained on how to hold the flag, unfold it, raise it, and fold it at the end of the day. And it was never to touch the ground. This flag was special. It meant something. It was to be handled and flown with respect.

Then, on November 23, 1963, I learned how to raise the US flag to half-mast.  Our President, John Kennedy, had been assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and for the following month, each morning, my partner and I would raise the flag to the top of the pole and then slowly lower it halfway down.  Our flag at half-mast became a lesson in honor for a fallen President. 

While studying American history, I learned about Betsy Ross and the significance of the stars and stripes. I also saw the monument in Washington, D.C., honoring the flag raised during the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II. Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, I remember how, at midnight, when TV stations shut down for the night, our flag would wave on the screen as the national anthem was the last thing played.

The flag was always flown with pride.

That was then. Unless you’ve been locked in a time capsule for fifty years, you know that times are changing. The American Experiment in ordered liberty is under attack. Today, activists are calling for the destruction of America and condemning the Constitution and the First Amendment. They claim that the American Experiment has failed; the foundation of this Republic was flawed from the beginning.

These activists aim to tear down a country they see as full of hypocrites, racists, and murderers. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were slave owners. They ask, why should we honor the Founding Fathers? And why should we pledge allegiance to a flag that stands for such a sinful nation?

The answer is a simple one.

No other nation has contributed more to our world than the USA. Yes, our history is flawed and complicated. You only need to look at how long it took to abolish slavery and how Native Americans were treated. Yes, we must address our national sins, and the best way to do so is through a constitutional republic. 

I have yet to hear from anyone who seeks to tear down our Republic what system they plan to replace it with.  Socialism?  How naive.

What hubris it is to so easily dismiss and condemn the errors of past generations by the standards of the present.  Yes, we have a less-than-perfect history, and, if our vision is clear, our present day has its own set of moral challenges.  But our forefathers, however flawed, left us a constitutional republic that allows us to address inequities and injustice.

It was Benjamin Franklin who, in 1787, was asked what the Constitutional Convention had produced. His response? “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”

Our flag has many names: the Star-Spangled Banner, the Stars and Stripes, and Old Glory.  Whatever we call it, let it remind us that we are a republic, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Long may it wave!