Posted by: Steve Hemmingsen - 07/03/2009 12:00 AM
The American flag, the Star Spangled Banner, still means a lot; a lot of things to a lot of people around the world. Some love it, some hate it, some love to hate it. Every singer does his or her level best to destroy the song that honors it, thinking they’re honoring it.
Veterans who fought for it see it as sacred. Another generation sees it as the classiest shirt at a country western concert.
only convenience store.
In my travels, I collect photos of Old Glory’s various incarnations: a flatbed trailer in Canby…or is it Madison, Minnesota…honoring those mostly-forgotten troops in our mostly forgotten wars, mosaics of the flag that have endured several of those wars in Arco, Minnesota, water towers with a patriotic motif in Northeastern South Dakota, patriotic farm implements on silos, not to mention inadvertently patriotic pelicans in Florida.
I try to put them all together on the Fourth of July. I suppose Flag Day or Flag Week would be better; Veteran’s Day or Memorial Day would serve just as well. But, I have chosen the Fourth and here is a sampling of Old Glory in all its glory.
12:00 AM
