Silent Soldier: Our American Flag

Silent Soldier
original poem by x_1013_x

Through musket blast and canon roar,
the crash of bombs on foreign shore,
the flag has flown as it’s flown before;
glorious and tall.

Through hunger, cold, and haunting fear,
soldier’s loss, a mother’s tear,
it stands for all that we hold dear;
heeding freedom’s call.

Though history and years ahead,
what is silent and what is said,
purest blue, white, and red,
the flag will never fall.

Our current President seems to think very little of our flag. The flag was born of our battles for freedom. Without those battles, Obama wouldn't be president. Not just the struggles for racial equality, mind you, but the wars before America was founded and every battle since. After all, you can't be president of something that doesn't exist. He balks at wearing a pin, forgets to salute, and now seems ashamed enough of the stars and stripes that the U.S. military relief workers in Haiti have no colors under which to gather. Why he has this aversion to the flag is anyone's guess, but to me, the flag is everything it should be: a reminder that freedom must be cherished and the sacrifices made to gain that freedom should never be taken for granted.

Placing undue emphasis on the material things in life is rarely a good thing. Men have fought and died for less than cloth, that's for certain. But if someone can't have a little respect for something as storied and gallant as our flag, how can we expect them to respect our founding documents? No matter what happens in the coming months or years, the flag will stand true. It has seen us at our best and now, I fear, it's seeing us at our worst. But as long as there are those of us who remember what the flag symbolizes, there is genuine hope.