Elks celebrate Flag Day for Coldwater
COLDWATER — The Benevolent Protect Order of Elks is a national organization that celebrates Flag Day every June 14 with ceremonies at its lodges.
Friday evening, Coldwater’s lodge #1023 presented a history of the nation’s flags beginning before the Revolutionary War.
State Sen. Jon Lindsey said those outside our country have different perspectives of our national flag.
Lindsey said some see our flag as a symbol of a great nation that can preserve its own nation as it intervenes in stopping tyranny.
The senator said, “For some of the most evil people in history, they have looked at this symbol with absolute terror, and rightly so.” Others see it as a symbol of war.
Lindsey added, “Many people have simply looked at it as a point of inspiration, a point of aspiration, and many of them have sought to come here and join our nation.”
The senator urged residents to teach their children, as his family taught him, the importance and patriotism of the flag.
Lindsey, who served in the Army Special Forces, added, “I had many experiences in the military that deepened my appreciation of my patriotism.”
President Woodrow Wilson issued a 1916 proclamation of June 14 as Flag Day. In 1949, President Harry S. Truman signed the formal observance into law.
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The Continental Congress created the flag of the then 13 United States on June 14, 1777, to “be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field.”
— Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Elks celebrate flag day for Coldwater. Sen Lindsey reflects on flag
