Flag Day: I Am an American

There are many things that make me proud to be an American, too many to count.

Today is Flag day, a time to celebrate the birthday of the American flag. A flag that we have flown and honored since before our grandfathers. A flag that has represented our unity and our freedoms amongst good times and time of war.

It was actually a 19 year old school teacher in the late 1800′s that decided it was time to honor the flag. As the story goes he set out a soda/pop bottle and stuck a flag in it. He told his students he wanted them to write an essay about the flag and its significance. This school teacher, Bernard J. Cigrand went on to dedicate a part of his life to getting the country to honor the flag on her birthday.

And then it happened:

The crowning achievement of his life came at age fifty when President Wilson, on May 30, 1916, issued a proclamation calling for a nation wide observance of Flag Day. Then in 1949, President Truman signed an Act Of Congress designating the 14th day of June every year as National Flag Day.

Today I fly the flag, salute it and thank all the soldiers and families of the military for protecting our flag so that I may have the honor to do so.