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Renier Announces Campaign for Congress
VETERANS SHOW SUPPORT WITH FLAG CEREMONY AT NOON
My Tattered Flag
People ask me why I keep my flag flying. It has lost a stripe. One stripe is clinging to life wrapped around a safety line. Others are tattered barely resembling the parts from which they were constructed. The stars are still all there, but faded just a little from the sun. She flies in daytime, and she flies at night, just as she did when Frances Scott Key wrote our National Anthem, "The Star Spangled Banner."
"Why do you fly that flag so tattered?" they ask.
I tell them that I put that flag up on the first day of the Iraq war and I will take it down when our men and women, so bravely serving our country, come home. My flag reminds me and makes me think of our troops every single day--torn and tattered, missing parts, equipment failing or blown away, limping by, hanging on for dear life.
Yet, she is other things too. She is still blowing free in the wind; she is proud. She never gives up. She is there by day and by night to guide us home or to safety; and she is still Old Glory!
I hope our nation always remains strong, just like the 50 stars that represent our 50 United States so proudly flying on my flag. I also hope that our Constitution keeps us flying free, as the 13 stripes representing our Original 13 Colonies and the people who drafted that document have always done. On my flag, however, they are starting to shred. Democracy is very fragile.
I also hope that our troops come home soon. I'm not sure how much more my poor, old flag, or our troops, can take.
Sharon Renier
Written February 2, 2007
