Imperial Valley press., 1943-06-16
WHAT DOES FLAG DAY
MEAN TO YOU?

1HOueH AlOHudy Ol1lCldlly was FIdS
Day, Imperial Valley will celebrate the
occasion next Friday
If hundred persons were asked,
What does Flag Day mean to you, prob
ably every answer would differ.
There would be some dreary-visioned
people who, engrossed with the shades
and shadows of war, the worries (real
or fancied) of personal problems the
strife and emotion of internal political
disagreements, would be forced to hesi-
tate a moment before they could find
brighter answers to the question.
Some might wonder if important seq
mentS of the Flags meaning were not
lost at Corregidor, in the years before
Pearl Harbor, in the coal mines or struck
defense plants, in political social and
economic conflict between classes, creeds
and colors.
There might even be some very mega
tive comments to the effect that why
should we shout when being subjected
to such force, compulsion and lack of
freedom; when we're all dictated to and
nothing is running right; when thousands
of brave Americans are prisoners in dark,
Jap dungeons; when we're not getting
anywhere with the war, and new super
duper state is being set up to overshadOW
the things for which our flag stands.
So might the very Respondent speak.
But they would be short-sighted in
deed.
What we really celebrate on Flag Day
is the very fact that this nation is so
big and fundamentally right that it can
grow and prosper despite all kinds of
divergent thought and opinion.
So much of goodness and richness is
woven into the warp and woof of that
Flag, that the people over whom it flies
continue to move forward despite the
very differences which mark them as
free people.
No other nation has had so much. No
other peoples have boasted more free
dom, liberty, room for development and
expansion, opportunity for self-benefit
and more service to a larger number Of
people.
There may be doubts today in broad
strata of our society as to whether our
nation is intrinsically as strong as it for
merly was. But we find in the pages Of
history that there has always been doubt
and dssension.
Such has been characteristic Of our
development, though we cannot use this
as an excuse to sooth ourselves into
sleepy lethargy.
Our strength and the sterling quail
ties for which the flag stands, lie in the
fact that sooner or later, Right wins out
under our system. 1t may be long COM
ing, but it comes Sooner or later the
sound judgment of the most people points
to the proper road.
No. there is nothing of which we can
be ashamed about that Flag. We may
be ashamed of the way we conduct our
selves under it's benevolent folds, but the
very shame only stimulates to improve
ment and more worthy effort.
That such striving and struggling up
ward is so continuous under the way of
life which it symbolizes helps to place
it high and ahead upon the face of the
globe.
Flag Day therefore is day for taking
stock of our national blessings, of max
ing new resolutions for using the benefits
of this country in more productive and
apprecative manner. 1t is an occasion
for thoughtful consideration of the past,
1t is a day to mediate the obligations
which we assumed when we clasped this
staff from the failing hands of those
generations which so proudly and capab-
ly have carried those proud colors this
far through the years of history.
May we be as proud of the future, as
we have reason to be proud of the past
p. A. J.