Laura Young
ECB Publishing, Inc.
With time, even the best cared-for American flags become faded, worn and even torn after waving the red, white and blue through years of heat, rain and wind. When this became the case with the flag at the Jefferson Senior Citizens Center (JSCC), arrangements were made with VFW Post 251 to handle the official flag retirement ceremony. The post went further, however, and offered a full flag education program to clients and guests at the center on Friday, March 24.
Mazie Woodson-Glenn, the new director of JSCC, welcomed everyone to the program and introduced John Nelson, Sr., as the key speaker. Nelson presented information about the history of the United States flag, inviting audience members to participate in reading aloud some flag facts along a timeline from 1765, when the Sons of Liberty displayed the first American flag during the Boston Tea Party, to 1912, when President W. H. Taft established the star pattern, five-pointed star shape and star-point orientation currently used in our flag.
Then everyone went outside to the flagpole, where the Color Guard from Jefferson County K-12 School's JROTC retired the tattered flag and raised a new flag in its place. The retired flag was then disposed of by burning, as set forth in Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8k, of the U.S. Flag Code. It states: “The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.”
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