Fifty Star Flag
Bicentennial Flag Memorial
With the admission of Alaska in 1959 and Hawaii in 1960, the present fifty-star flag came into being. Like other flags of our nation, the fifty-star flag has seen the varied conditions that can beset a dynamic association of peoples. Under it, the United States has seen, as it did under most all of the nation's flags, far-flung exploration; under it, internal and external conflicts have arisen and sometimes been resolved; under it, economic, environmental and humanitarian highs and lows have been reached.
Also, like other flags, it has been alternately desecrated and honored because it does symbolize our aggregate actions. But, in the final analysis, President Wilson's statement on Flag Day, 1917 still applies to the present Stars and Stripes
"This flag, which we honor and under which we serve, is the emblem of our unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other character than that which we give it from generation to generation. The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute these choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, though silent, it speaks to us - speaks to us of the past, of the men and women who went before us, and of the records they wrote upon it."
Courtesy hmdb.org
