This Sunday, June 14, is Flag Day.  On June 14, 1777 Congress adopted the Stars and Stripes as the flag of the United States of America.  For more than 100 years after that date, however, there was no official holiday to commemorate the flag and its significance. 

Bernard J. Cigrand, a young teacher working at the Stoney Hill School near Fredonia, Wisconsin, began the process that eventually led to the recognition of June 14 as Flag Day.  In 1885, on the anniversary of the adoption of the flag, Cigrand placed a small (ten inches) flag with 38 stars in an inkwell on his desk and then assigned his students to write an essay explaining what the flag meant to them.  Upon the completion of the assignment, however, Cigrand continued to advocate for the adoption of a holiday to observe the significance of the flag. 

Others mimicked Cigrand’s sentiment in the late 1800s, perhaps as a means of assisting in the Americanization of the country’s immigrant children.  In 1889, for example, George Balch, a kindergarten teacher in New York City planned activities for his students to recognize the flag on June 14.  Soon after, the State Board of Education of New York adopted Flag Day as a holiday to be observed by all public schools in the state.  Two years later, the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia held a Flag Day celebration and the following year the New York Society of the Sons of the Revolution officially observed Flag Day.  In 1893, Dr. Edward Brooks, then Superintendent of Public Schools of Philadelphia endorsed a resolution that would allow school children in that city to celebrate Flag Day.

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Last year on Memorial Day, I posted an article providing some information on the history and significance of this holiday.  This year, I wanted to take an opportunity to recognize and honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.  Though the statement, “Freedom is not free” is a bit of a cliché, it certainly contains much truth. 

This Memorial Day, I encourage you to take a moment to consider the sacrifices that have been made in the name of America’s freedom.  Since our nation’s inception, the men and women of our armed forces have been willing to lay down their lives so that we as individual citizens can continue to enjoy the many freedoms that are such a hallmark of American life.  Our nation is facing challenges that may seem unprecedented and overwhelming at times.  Despite the challenges, the freedoms enjoyed by every American citizen are steadfast and unwavering thanks to the valiant sacrifices of our nation’s military, past and present.

Take a moment today to pause and reflect on our freedoms.  And thank those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

In 1796, the last full year of George Washington’s presidency, the citizens of the United States honored their first president by celebrating his birthday, February 22nd.  From the celebration in 1796 sprung a tradition of honoring President Washington by celebrating his birthday.  By the early 1800s, wealthy Americans were celebrating Washington’s birthday with lavish parties and receptions; the average American commemorated the holiday by gathering with friends for picnics or a couple of drinks at the local bar.  Though the majority of Americans celebrated George Washington’s Birthday, it was not an official national holiday until 1880.  Many states instituted it as a state holiday, however, allowing Americans to enjoy a day off work to celebrate.

By the mid 1800s, another American president had captured the hearts of the American people: President Abraham Lincoln.  Coincidentally, Lincoln’s birthday is February 12th.  In 1865, one year after President Lincoln’s assassination, the nation officially honored his presidency and character by commemorating his birthday.  In 1880, George Washington’s birthday became a federal legal holiday, making Washington the first American to have a federal holiday named in his honor.  Though Lincoln’s birthday did not become an official federal holiday, many states began celebrating it either in addition to or in conjunction with George Washington’s birthday.  Those states that celebrated Lincoln’s birthday in conjunction with Washington’s began calling the holiday Presidents Day.

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A Peace Corps volunteers works in South America. (Photo from www.peacecorps.gov)

In October 1960, Senator John Kennedy spoke to graduates of the University of Michigan and encouraged them to “live and work in developing countries around the world, thus dedicating themselves to the cause of peace and development.”  On September 22, 1961, the culmination of the efforts Kennedy discussed at the University of Michigan the previous year were realized when Congress authorized the passage of the Peace Corps Act officially establishing the Peace Corps. 

Since the official establishment of the Peace Corps, nearly 200,000 Americans have donated their time and efforts in 139 countries toward achieving the goals set forth by Senator Kennedy in 1960.  In its earliest years, the Peace Corps focused on fundamental and vital necessities, including access to clean drinking water and literacy, which would help promote development in “interested countries.”  Today’s Peace Corps performs many of the same functions its first volunteers experienced, but as the world and its problems have evolved, so too has the Peace Corps.

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In 1907, the U.S. Army Signal Corps was created to assume responsibility over all matters pertaining to military aviation, and in its earliest days was a fledgling force of only eight aviation balloons, a dozen officers, and only slightly more enlisted men.  From that small yet effective force came the modern United States Air Force, established as a separate branch of the military services on September 18, 1947.

In the decade before its separation from the United States Army, the U.S. Army Air Corps as it was known proved its strength during the protracted battles of World War II.  By September 1939, the German army and air force had managed to defeat and occupy Poland, Norway, Holland, Belgium and France.  It was in the wake of such worldwide conflict that the Air Force began to develop into one of the world’s most effective military forces.  Equipment and funding poured into the U.S. Army Air Corps as President Franklin Roosevelt began to realize that in order to defeat the determined Germans, the United States would need a superior military aviation force. 

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An act of Congress in 1894 made the first Monday in September a federal holiday, Labor Day, in celebration of the American worker.  The genesis of the holiday was a march on City Hall in New York City on September 5, 1882, by 10,000 workers who wanted to call attention to the issues of work conditions in America.  At the time, the average American worked a 12-hour day, 7 days a week.  The movement that culminated in the march on City Hall accelerated the birth of labor unions and the political power of workers and their unions.

In the years following the Labor Day legislation, cities and towns nationwide sponsored massive parades and events in honor of the American worker; those activities are no longer the focal point of the holiday.  Labor Day is celebrated by many in America as a symbol of the end of summer.  NCAA and NFL football traditionally kick off their seasons around Labor Day weekend and many Americans squeeze one last weekend trip into the dwindling days of summer.  There is little doubt that the American worker has made tremendous contributions to the development of our nation and as globalization of the work force continues, I think it’s important to remember their achievements.