Long May You Wave

Written by my beloved, passionate Gram on June 25, 1989 in response to an article in the Los Angeles Daily News regarding flag burning...

In Honor of Flag Day

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I am the Flag of the United States of America. Do not call me "Just" a symbol.
I carry the echo of once beating hearts, stilled so that I could wave on high.
I am wet with tears that will never dry.
I am covered with the dust and sweat of those who through every kind of hardship, heartbreak and pain, made me strong.
I lay with heavy heart over the more than two hundred caskets of our young Marines killed in Beirut by fiends, senselessly and undefended.
I held my breath as six battle weary men with uniforms splattered with the blood of fallen comrades, struggled to raise my colors on Mt. Suribachi.
I am flying guard over the white crosses of fallen husbands, sons, fathers and brothers who lie in foreign soil thousands of miles from home.
I renew the strength of purpose, faith and hope to those that reach out for me, who look to me for inspiration.
I am not words that need freedom to be spoken.
I am EVERYTHING American.
I understand what five black-robed men of our Supreme Court were trying to prove when they ruled it illegal to stop the actions of those who want to wound me, throw me down, destroy me. But I hurt with this decision.
There is a time when the moral issue transcends the technical.
This is that time.
Call me a symbol if you like, but I am more, deeply, meaningfully more.
Do not open the door that will give those who wish to harm us the first step that will lead to more attempts at our downfall.
Respect me.
I shall remain strong.
I will always be here.

Martha Dordigan 1923 - 1996