Ravings of a Mad Man: vol. 6.16
It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid then open it and remove all doubt
-Mark Twain
Today is Flag’s Day Eve; I don’t think that this holiday gets as much street cred as it should. There are some pretty cool flags out there and there are some not so cool flags out there. The 50 states of these United States have very unique flags that try to represent what their state stood for when the flag was created. I am sure that if they could make new flags they would probably look a little different. Mostly I just want Utah to make a new cooler flag. They could do something unique like Ohio and not have the flag be a rectangle. Maybe Utah should adopt a circle flag to show that we are an eternal state no beginning or end, well just forget about 1896 and let’s say there was no beginning. There are some pretty funny flags when you look at all of them together and you wonder how they came up with that flag. For example Alabama adopted its flag in 1895 and is a simple white background with a large red X on it then five years later Florida adopted its flag, plain white background with a large red X on it and a little seal of sorts. I like to imagine that the Florida flag people were like, “Uh the federal government says we need a state flag.” So they got a committee together to decide what the flag should be. They came up with a simple flag, white with a red X on it. When they submitted it the feds said, “This is Alabama’s flag try again.” So they went back to Florida made the stripes a little bit bigger and put a seal on it, then sent it back. The feds just said fine that will work. So here are my top five favorite state flags: (Click on the link to see the flag and find out about the meaning of the flag) PS if anybody ever finds a T-shirt of any of these state flags I wear a large or a medium and I will gladly pay you back if you buy me one.
5. New Mexico
4. Washington
3. Maryland
2. Rhode Island
1. South Carolina (Tied for the oldest adopted flag 1861, which means when you get it right the first time you don’t have to redo anything)
Trivia Time: Phew the Heat didn’t win. What is the coolest flag you have seen? I personally am partial to the New Brunswick flag.
You can’t talk about flags without talking about the American flag I found on the internets some interesting information about the meaning of the United State’s flag.
Writers and speakers often attribute meaning to the colors of the flag. But, in truth, the Continental Congress never spoke about what the colors represented. But the red, white, and blue colors included in the Great Seal of the United States, which first appeared 1782, did purportedly represent ideals and beliefs of our Founding Fathers. Their significance was explained by Charles Thompson, Secretary of the Continental Congress, and included in the book "Our Flag," published in 1989.
Note that many, many flags around the world use the colors red, white, and blue including the British union jack. Some of the designers of the American flag consciously wanted to connect it with the British flag. The flag of the United States of America consists of 13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 U.S. states and the 13 stripes represent the original Thirteen Colonies that rebelled against the British Crown and became the first states in the Union
Note that many, many flags around the world use the colors red, white, and blue including the British union jack. Some of the designers of the American flag consciously wanted to connect it with the British flag. The flag of the United States of America consists of 13 equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the canton bearing 50 small, white, five-pointed stars arranged in nine offset horizontal rows of six stars (top and bottom) alternating with rows of five stars. The 50 stars on the flag represent the 50 U.S. states and the 13 stripes represent the original Thirteen Colonies that rebelled against the British Crown and became the first states in the Union
America was foundered as a Christian nation. The stripes come from a verse in the Bible in Isaiah 53.5- By his stripes we were healed. This verse is quoted again in 1 Peter 2.24. In the Crucifixion account, Jesus was whipped 39 times, and the wounds appeared in the form of stripes. So the stripes on the American flag also represent Jesus being wounded for us so that we could be free from our sins. Concerning the stars on the flag, there is a verse in Daniel 12 about the righteous shining as the stars. Each of the 13 original states had a destiny to shine as the stars of heaven.
And of course we can’t leave out the infamous quote about our flag by Nelson Muntz (the bully on the Simpsons, you know the one that says, “Ha, ha”). And I quote, “So burn that flag if you must! But before you do, you'd better burn a few other things! You'd better burn your shirt and your pants! Be sure to burn your TV and car! Oh yeah, and don't forget to burn your house! Because none of those things would exist without six red stripes, seven red stripes, and a helluva lot of stars!”
Have a good week I know I will
Eric Jones
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