Winning Words 6/14/12
“Hats off!  The flag is passing by…”  (Henry Bennett)  Today, June 14, is Flag Day, honoring the decision, June 14, 1777, to have a flag for our new nation.  Betsy Ross is thought to have designed that flag.  Bennett’s poem speaks of giving honor to the “stars and stripes.”  Recently, our newspaper ran an article which described how to properly display the flag.  I think I’ll blog it, and Bennett’s poem, too.    ;-)  Jack

HATS OFF!  -  Henry Holcomb Bennett
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A flash of color beneath the sky:
Hats off!
The colors before us fly....
But more than the flag is passing by....
Days of plenty and years of peace;
March of a strong land's swift increase;
Equal justice, right, and law,
Stately honor and reverend awe;
Sign of a nation, great and strong
To ward her people from foreign wrong:
Pride and glory and honor,-all
Live in the colors to stand or fall.
Hats off!
Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums;
And loyal hearts are beating high:
Hats off!
The flag is passing by!

HOW TO FLY THE FLAG WITH PROPER DIGNITY  The Detroit Free Press     May 28, 2012
If you plan to let your patriotic colors fly today in honor of Memorial Day, do right by Old Glory and display it with dignity -- which is to say, not on your stars-and-stripes bikini. The U.S. Flag Code gives guidelines for properly displaying the American flag. The rules are purely advisory and there's no enforcement or penalty for violating them, though there are some exceptions for the District of Columbia and states can make their own flag laws.
What you should do
• Whether hanging horizontally or vertically, the union should be uppermost and to the observer's left (in a window, the observer is the person in the street).
• On Memorial Day, the flag should fly at half-staff until noon and then be hoisted to the peak. (When flying at half-staff, hoist the flag to the peak first before lowering it to half-staff; bring to the peak again before bringing it down for the day.)
• The flag should be displayed outside from sunrise to sunset only, unless it's properly illuminated at night.
• When displayed with other national flags, all flags should be the same size and fly from separate staffs of the same height.
• When displayed with other state, local or society flags, the U.S. flag should always be at the peak (if on the same halyard -- the rope that hoists the flag); at the center and highest point (if in a cluster of staffs); and hoisted first and lowered last (if on adjacent flagpoles). No other flag should be above it or to the flag's own right.
• When marching, the flag should be carried on the marching right, or, if there's a line of flags, in front of the center of that line.
• On a car, the flag staff should be fixed to the chassis or clamped to the right fender.
• Wear a flag lapel pin over your heart.
What you shouldn't do
• Don't display the flag during inclement weather (unless it's an all-weather flag).
• Never let the flag touch anything beneath it, including the ground, water or merchandise.
• Don't drape the flag over vehicles, wear it as apparel or use it as bedding or drapery.
• Never carry the flag flat or horizontal, or festoon it or draw it up in folds. It should fly aloft and free.
• Never put any mark, insignia, words, pictures or designs on the flag.
Folding the flag
Though the Flag Code does not specify how the flag should be folded, tradition dictates you end up with a triangle with only the blue union showing. For instructions, visit www.legion.org/flag/folding.

FROM EEC IN MICHIGAN:  Thanks for the reminder!////FROM JACK:  After I posted Winning Words, I went out and put up the flag.

FROM OUTHOUSE JUDY:  We keep ours up 24/7.  We do have the proper lights on it at night also.  God Bless America!!////FROM JACK:  I'm going to check and see how many flags I see flying today, besides those in front of businesses.

FROM RI IN BOSTON:  I remember Bennett's poem from elementary school.  It was perhaps the first piece of poetry to which we were introduced...and worthy of that distinction.////FROM JACK:  Hats off to you, if you can remember the words.

FROM HONEST JOHN:  My cousin Henry (Hank) was born on Flag Day.   Always made it an easy birthday date to remember...he was a Moliner and played on their baseball team.////FROM JACK:  Hats off to Hank and to all those with June 14 birthdays...like Steffi Graf, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Burl Ives and Donald Trump.

FROM INDY GENIE:  ok..we'll take our hats off for a minute but then we we'll have to put them right back on. we are all(john, mary, ruth, pat, kids and grandkids, cousins etc.)gathering in northern wisconsin (manitowish waters) for our family reunion!! so excited to be together in the northern woods! today is travelling day...we'll all be "up north" tomorrow! (we were all talk taught as kids to honor the flag..no doubt about that!)////FROM JACK:  I suppose you will visit the Hurley homestead.  I wonder if it's as wild as it used to be when you lived there?

FROM PLAIN FOLKS CHESTER:  Every day is Flag Day at our house.////FROM JACK:  Do you take off your hat when you pass it by?

FROM WATERFORD JAN:  Hats off to you for supporting the honoring of our nation's flag, and for giving extra acknowledgement by including Bennett's poem and the details of flag courtesy.////FROM JACK: My favorite depiction of the flag was from Joe Rosenthal's 1945 photo of 5 Marines and a Navy corpsman raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima.

FROM GUSTIE MARLYS:  It is raining here on my stars and stripes!  Uff Da!  I do have my "flag lapel pin" on however.////FROM JACK:  A lapel flag counts.  BTW, when is the Swedish Flag Day?

FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  I hung my flag early this morning.  We have neighbors and children who have flagpoles in their front yards and who fly the flag every day.  I still have the flag which I had when I taught in Moline and in Long Beach, and it has the 48 stars.////FROM JACK:  Whatever happened to your one with 13 stars in a circle?

FROM BLAZING OAKS:  I enjoyed the poem, which I don't remember ever reading before. Good old-fashioned patriotism and pride!!  I hadn't thought about it being flag day,(It was perfect day to be on the golf course!)  but have a flag displayed on my patio, in front.  We certainly are blessed to be living in the USA, despite out trials and turmoils, it is still a great place to be!////FROM JACK:  Just think...on this Flag Day the US Open is being played in San Francisco, and you're playing Outinthe Open in Illinois.