Flag Day

RE "PROTECTING the flag House agenda again" (article June 4): Philadelphia is the birthplace of America, where most of our important documents were drafted and adopted. At the start of American Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress commissioned Betsy Ross in 1776 to design the very first American flag. Now, nearly 227 years later, Congress is battling over whether or not burning the American flag is freedom of expression. Three years ago, when Philadelphia hosted the 2000 Republican National Convention, the city was bombarded with revellers who defaced Old Glory.

Nothing pleases me more than the display of patriotism and love for America that people express by flying the flag, particularly on Flag Day, which is this Saturday. Unfortunately, many either ignore or are unaware of flag etiquette. Flying a worn, tattered or ripped flag is not only disrespectful, but it violates the guidelines in the U.S. Code: "The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.

Old Glory never figured into the Korean War that Thomas F. Lynch remembers. As a 23-year-old staff sergeant, Lynch ventured onto the battlefield near Pusan, South Korea, at night. With snipers' bullets whistling overhead, he gathered the remains of dead GIs into body bags, and dragged them away from the front. The only way he could honor America's fallen dead was by being careful. "We showed an awful lot of respect," Lynch says. "When we put them on the trucks, we never stacked them.

George Whartnaby sifts through a half-dozen clear trash bags stuffed with about 2,000 sun-bleached, wind-frayed casualties of patriotism. Between the attic and storage room of American Legion Post 214 in Upper Darby are 1,000 more discarded flags, awaiting a retirement by fire. "We're close to 3,000 and it's only been a month," said Whartnaby, commandant of the Marine Corps League Upper Darby Detachment 884. "I was surprised we have this many," he said. "People don't want to throw them out. But they don't know what to do with them.

Boy Scout Troop 31 of Southampton continued a solemn tradition on Flag Day. Scouts took part in the troop's annual flag-retirement ceremony at the township municipal building. They were joined by representatives of veterans' organizations, the Vincentown Fire Department and residents. Throughout the year, the troop collects American flags that are no longer usable. They then arrange for proper disposal. Residents who have flags that are torn or damaged can call 856-914-1654 to arrange for the flags to be collected.

I was not one of those who rushed to raise the flag after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I hope that those who did put the stars and stripes in their car windows do not think I was unpatriotic. I certainly do not think they are any less patriotic now than they were when their cars and houses were bedecked in red, white and blue. But the post-9/11 flag-waving does raise the question of what it means to be patriotic. Most Americans agree that a love of country starts with support for the principles of democracy.

THE AMERICAN flag is enjoying a new popularity since Sept. 11. Annin & Co., the nation's largest and oldest flag-maker, reports that sales are still 25 percent above normal as Americans continue to fly the Stars and Stripes from their porches and cars. Grand public displays of the Red, White and Blue are also in fashion. The World Series in New York, the Super Bowl in New Orleans and the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City all boasted such patriotic pageantry. What was once regarded as an old-fashioned reverence for - or jingoistic display of - the flag is now considered critical to the healing process.

In honor of Flag Day, an evening of patriotic music and special programs will be held at 7:30 tomorrow at Proclamation Presbyterian Church in Bryn Mawr. The event will include a music program by the nationally known baritones Wintley Phipps, Robert McFarland and Jeffrey Kneebone. There will also be educational demonstrations and talks, including on the 225-year history of Old Glory. Among expected attendees are Gov. Schweiker; U.S. Sens. Rick Santorum and Orrin Hatch; Barry C. Black, chief of the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps; and the Rev. Wilson Goode.

John Irvin Post No. 250 of the American Legion in Runnemede will hold its annual flag-disposal ceremony at 7 p.m. on Flag Day, June 14, at the Runnemede senior citizens' building, East Third Avenue and Irish Hill Road. The ceremony will be held in accordance with American Legion guidelines. The ceremony is held yearly to allow people to dispose of old, worn-out, torn or unusable flags. Old flags can be given to members of the American Legion before the ceremony or can be brought to the service.

The American flag is everywhere now: draped from porches; popping from flower boxes and gardens; taped to car antennas; hanging grandly from the brick walls of office and apartment complexes; sprouting from bicycles, baseball caps and construction cranes. Many of the flags were hauled up from basements and out of closets where they were stored after July Fourth. It's remarkable how their symbolism has changed between then and now. On this summer's July Fourth, as usual, the flags represented a benign and happy patriotism.