Published: June 16, 2009 04:28 pm      

RANDOM THOUGHTS: Treat your flag with deserved respect

Sunday, June 14, was Flag Day nationwide. At our house everyday is flag day. One of the first things we did when we moved into our home was install a tall flag post and a ground light illuminating it so the flag could fly free at all hours. That means we change flags several times a year. Each old flag was carefully folded and stored away. It took some time before I found where to take them to be disposed of properly. American Legion posts will always accept them.

The Crab-Orchard Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution have arranged with the First National Bank of Tennessee, Fairfield branch, to accept worn-out American flags all during the month of June. The flags will be disposed of in a ceremony by the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of Crossville. I attended one of these ceremonies and I wondered if young people were learning the history of this symbol of our nation.

U.S.A Today had a story of a worker in waste management in Elgin, IL. A Canadian and now U.S. citizen he has rescued more than 250 discarded flags tossed out as trash in the last 18 months. As boxes of flags filled they were taken to the American Legion. For his efforts he is being honored at the state American Legion convention next month.

This Sunday, June 21, is the day to honor fathers. Mother’s Day was the sermon in a church in Spokane, WA in 1910. The first such day had been held in West Virginia just two years before but it had not been recognized officially. As Sonora Smart Dodd listened to the sermon praising mothers she thought of how fortunate she and her five brothers had been. Their mother had died at an early age in childbirth. Their father, William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran, had been both mother and father to his family.

It happened Mrs. Dodd’s father’s birthday was just three weeks away on June 5 and she decided fathers should be honored too. She acted immediately and spoke to local ministers and the members of the Spokane YWCA. All supported the idea but they needed more time to prepare. On June 19, 1910 Spokane honored fathers and newspapers across the country carried the story, linking it with the struggle to make Mother’s Day official.

In Washington President Woodrow Wilson had engaged in a bitter struggle for six years before signing the proclamation making Mother’s Day a national observance and all this was very fresh in his mind when the Father’s Day issue would not go away. In 1916 he and his family observed the day as he pushed a button in the White House to open a huge celebration of Father’s Day in Spokane. The Governor of Washington was not amused and he told Mrs. Dodd to stay home and tend to her knitting.

The all-male Congress played coy and made the excuse if they took action they would be accused of giving themselves a pat on the back. That didn’t stop the cry for action and President Calvin Coolidge wrote to the governors in 1924 suggesting each state hold their own observance.

Even though Father’s Day was observed annually across the nation it took 62 years for Mrs. Dodd’s idea to become official. President Richard Nixon made it a permanent part of the June calendar in 1972.

This third week in June began with the reminder to treat your worn flags with respect and ends with the reminder to do the same with your father.