June 14th is Flag Day...

"Ragged Old Flag"

I walked through a county courthouse square
On a park bench, an old man was sittin' there.
I said, "Your old court house is kinda run down,"
He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town."
I said, "Your old flag pole is leaned a little bit,
And that's a ragged old flag you got hangin' on it."
He said, "Have a seat," and I sat down.
"Is this the first time you've been to our little town?"
I said, "I think it is,"
He said "I don't like to brag, but we're kinda proud of
That ragged old flag."

"You see, we got a little hole in that flag there,
When Washington took it across the Delaware.


(General George Washington crossing the Delaware.)

And it got powder burned the night Francis Scott Key sat watching it,
Writing "Say Can You See."
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans, with Packingham & Jackson
Tugging at its seams.
And it almost fell at the Alamo beside the Texas flag,
But she waved on though.


(Feb 24, 1836: Alamo defenders call for help.)

She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville,
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee and Beauregard and Bragg,


(Civil war 44th New York Infantry.)

And the south wind blew hard on that ragged old flag.

"On Flanders Field in World War I,


(Battle of St. Mihiel 1918.)

She gotta big hole from a Bertha Gun.
She turned blood red in World War II


(Attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii December 7, 1941.)

She hung limp, and low, a time or two.


(USS Crescent City ~ World War II.)

She was in Korea, Vietnam, she went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam.


(Korean War POWs posing with hand-made American flag.)

She waved from our ships upon the briny foam
And now they've about quit wavin' back here at home.

In her own good land here she's been abused,


(Bill Ayers ~ Former member of the 60's radical Weather Underground Organization.)

She's been burned, dishonored, denied an' refused.


(1969 ~ Washington DC anti war protesters.)


(February 2012 ~ Occupy Oakland protesters.)

And the government for which she stands
Is scandalized throughout the land.
And she's getting thread bare, and she's wearin' thin,
But she's in good shape, for the shape she's in.
Cause she's been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more.

"So we raise her up every morning
And we take her down slow every night.
We don't let her touch the ground,
And we fold her up right.


(The Countryfolk Keepsakes homestead.)

On second thought
I do like to brag,
Cause I'm mighty proud of
that ragged old flag.

Written by: Johnny Cash



♥ Teach and fly your flag. ♥

:> )