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Show themselves in that bright banner ( i and died gloriously. Women have gazed with tear-dimmed eyes upon its magic form and freely given for its defense that which was dearer than life itself. it-self. What a magnificent heritage is ours! Since the dim dawn of man's advent upon the earth, how painful and tortuous the path he has followed through the centuries in his quest for human Freedom. And when the fullness of time had come, God, in his infinite wisdom, guided man's fragile bark across wild and uncharted seas to the newfound new-found land of America and gave into nis eager hands the flaming flam-ing torch of Liberty. Here, guarded by the sons of Freedom, Free-dom, and protected by the most beautiful Flag in all the world, that divine fire has never lost its radiance. It shines forth today, from its lofty pedestal at the portal of our country, a beacon of hope to a confused and frightened world. Let us see to it that "its light shall never perish from the earth." In each succeeding senera- the black cloud of slavery darkened dark-ened the sky, and I trembled as brother was arrayed against brother. I saw the long lines of the men in blue and the men in gray as they met on the awful battle fields of Antietam and Gettysburg. In those days the altars of our country ran red with human sacrifices. But, I was saved. To make the world safe for democracy, I crossed the sea, and my sons in olive drab, standing before the tomb of America's great friend, said simply, "Lafayette, we are here," and the Spirit of Freedom claimed its price on Flanders Field. And once again I called, and up from factory and loom, from field and forest and mine, a mighty nation rose to carry to all the world our great message of the Four Freedoms. What price glory? My head was bowed and bloody at Guam, and my heart was pierced at Bataan, but the price was paid at Saipan, at Iwo Jima, at Leyte, at Normandy Beach, and the far-flung islands of the Pacific and the hedgerows hedge-rows of France were anointed with the life-blood of the sons and daughters of America. Today, To-day, in the silence, I keep watch over thousands of white crosses that encircle our world, and ask the benediction of a 'just and lasting peace' upon their blessed memory." The challenge will come and yet again. Ahead of us are the children of the nation. It is for them we live and carry on. Let us go forward as torch-bearers torch-bearers of Liberty and take our places as defenders of the faith It is for this that we Americans are born. And so we turn again to thee, beloved Flag, and pledge our all to thy service, for "Humanity, with all its fears, With all its hopes of future years, i I Is hanging breathless on thy fate. Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, Our faith, triumphant o'er our fears, x Are all with thee, are all with thee." w ensigns. Its highest beauty is in what it symbolizes. It is because it represents all we hold most sacred, that all gaze upon it with delight and reverence. Our Flag carries American ideas, American feelings, and American history. In its sacred heraldry, in its glorious insig-1 nia, it has gathered and stored one supreme idea: Divine right of Liberty in Man. Every color means Liberty. Every thread means Liberty. Every form of star and beam or stripe of light means Liberty: not lawlessness, not license, but organized or-ganized institutional Liberty. 1 It is the Government. It is the Constitution. It is the free people of our Western Democ-1 ! racy. Its radiant colors have a mes- j ' sage which was officially recog-1 recog-1 nized by our fathers. White is for purity. Red is for Valor. Blue is for Justice, and altogether alto-gether bunting, stars, stripes and colors floating in the sky, make the Flag of our Country to be cherished in all our hearts, to be upheld by all our hands, dearer, now, a thousand-fold than it has ever been. ! tion the forces of evil have challenged the sovereignty of our God-given banner. With high courage and loyal devotion, devo-tion, each challenge has been eagerly met, and the Flag still rides proudly high on the free winds of heaven. Its message is not stilled. It can be heard above the roar of machines and the whir of flying wings, for every star has a voice, every stripe is articulate; there is no speech nor language where its voice is not heard ever reminding remind-ing us that Freedom means the dedication of "our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor" to the great task of human liberation. lib-eration. Have you not heard its voice? Listen, as it speaks to us today: j i "I am your Flag; bought at a great price. I was born in the bloody footprints of the ragged rag-ged Continentals at Valley Forge. The reddened snow i melted into the soil and nurtured nur-tured the seeds of a new form of life out of which my soul, the Spirit of Liberty, has grown to full stature. What price Freedom? Not cheap was the cost. There came a time when Wednesday was Flag Day. On Flag Day, the folks who enjoy life and liberty in these United States are supposed to show their appreciation of those liberties and their freedom by honoring the Flag of Their Nation, Na-tion, displaying the flag, and presumably taking a few minutes min-utes off sometime during the day to reflect on what that Red, White and Blue symbol means to them. In Milford, at noon on Flag Day, we saw the colors displayed dis-played in very few places. Not even the City Flags were d: splayed. The brackets on the light poles along Main Street remained bare until 1 p. m. Too many Americans too many citizens of Milford are "foul-weather" Americans. They indulge in "flag-waving" and after all, what is flag-waving excupt a public display of patriotism? patri-otism? only when their homes and their freedoms are threatened threat-ened by an invader. During the recent Forty-Niner celebration celebra-tion when the Colors led the parade down Main Street, very few men showed the proper respect re-spect by removing their hats as their Flag passed very few women stood in silent respect with their hands over their hearts. An editorial in the current Colliers wants to know "What's Wrong with Flag-Waving, Anyway?" Any-way?" And the article is a sound treatise on why flag-waving flag-waving is what we need a lot mt re of, in or out of war. Recently Mrs. Vena Wilson gave a "Tribute to the Flag" at a Flag Ceremony put on by the Milford Rebekahs in Salt Lake. We quote from her discourse: Our Flag has been called a "floating piece of poetry," and y?1 T know not whether it has an intrinsic beauty above other I What precious associations', cluster around it! Where has. I it not gone, the pride of its I friends and the terror of its I foes! To us at home, it is the ' hallowed emblem of our strug- i gle through the years to pre-1 serve and defend the "right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" for all who claim its J protection. In an alien land, it is companionship and country itself, with all its endearments. Through what clouds of dust and smoke it has passed in the years now gone. What storms of shot and shell it has sustained. sus-tained. What scenes of fire and death have given it celestial baptism. Men have wrapped |