The following is a letter by Robert S. Rantoul, President of Essex Institute, Salem,  Massachusetts on February 28, 1900, which is so appropriate for our time in history.

The flag of a free country does not take care of itself.  Whether it shall command respect or not is to be determined by the quality of the Nation’s life.  It rests with all the people.  It is for us and those who shall come after us to say whether its ancient glory shall play about it still.

What mighty deeds have responded to its inspirations! What noble martyrdoms have been won beneath its folds!  It is a beautiful and a hallowed emblem, this starry ensign of our nationality.  In alien lands – in distant seas – the heart leaps up to see it float on high.  It speaks at once of aspirations and of achievement.  It stands at once for memory and for hope.  

It is a pledge – it is the Solemn Covenant of our common liberties.  It is a badge of brotherhood and of a common destiny.  It links together, by an indissoluble tie, with the Nation’s past and future,  the whole mighty family of her living sons.  

It should stand for majesty and might.  It should stand for purity and justice and honor.  

A little lowering of the patriotic standards, a little blunting of the national conscience, a little falling off in the collective honor of the people, and that generous pride with which we hail its lustrous folds lapses into the blind idolatry of emblem-worship – a heartless and a hollow sham.  

Who would look up to it when he could no longer say, “See the proud emblem of my Country’s honor.  I know no purer love!”

I leave this bit of wisdom to ponder – Happy July 4, 2014.

kommonsentsjane