Tribute to the Flag

It is a great multitude of people on pilgrimage,
common and ordinary people,
charged with the usual human failings,
yet filled with such a hope as never caught the imaginations
and the hearts of any nation on earth before.
The hope of liberty.
The hope of justice.
The hope of a land in which a man can stand straight,
without fear, without rancor.

The land and the people and the flag,
the land a continent,
the people of every race,
the flag a symbol of what humanity may aspire to
when the wars are over and the barriers are down:
to these each generation must be dedicated
and consecrated anew,
to defend with life itself, if need be,
but, above all,
in friendliness, in hope,
in courage, to live for.

Anonymous

I remember.