A salute to history
National Flag Day marked with ceremony, ‘retirement by flame’ of 1,700 flags
Some use the nickname Stars and Stripes. A few Americans still refer to it as Old Glory. But most simply call the banner of the United States the American flag — and on Tuesday, National Flag Day, the red, white and blue banner was the star of the show.
Greenlawn Southwest commemorated National Flag Day — marked each year on June 14 — with a celebration of the importance and meaning of the flag, as well as an annual flag retirement ceremony.
Many participated, including field representatives from the offices of local elected officials, an honor guard made up of members of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Bakersfield Young Marines, and Bakersfield Mayor Karen Goh.
“Even I, as an immigrant here,” Goh said, “I am so proud to be an American, and to be able to live in this land that this beautiful flag represents — a land where we can enjoy that precious liberty that others throughout the world actually wish that they could enjoy.”
Goh recalled in years past being involved in bringing Chinese students to California for visits.
“They would get to experience wonderful things like Disneyland and Yosemite,” Goh said. “And at the end, we would ask them, ‘What did you enjoy, and what did you value most about this experience?’
“And they would always point back to the freedom that we as Americans enjoy, the freedom for which we are here celebrating this flag today.”
Flag Day commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States on June 14, 1777, by resolution of the Second Continental Congress. But it wasn’t until 1916 that President Woodrow Wilson designated June 14 Flag Day.
Jim La Mar, Greenlawn’s president, said the funeral home has become the city’s unofficial center for honorably retiring torn and tattered American flags.
“The flame is the appropriate way to retire a flag,” he said. And Greenlawn’s crematorium is ideal.
Many Americans display the Stars and Stripes at their home or school or place of business. But sometimes faded or tattered flags are left up too long.
Greenlawn makes retiring one’s worn out flag easy and honorable, by offering its crematory at no cost to respectfully dispose of thousands of the aging banners.
“I believe the first year we did this we may have had close to 700 flags,” La Mar said.
“Last year, we had over 2,000 flags, and I thought, ‘OK, we kind of cleaned up all the old inventory.”
La Mar expected a big dip in the numbers this year as a result. But it didn’t happen.
“Today, we have close to 1,700 flags ... by getting the word out, we continue to have an outpouring of people that say, ‘I really want to honor our flag, whether it flew at a business, or whether it flew at a school, or whether it flew at a public office or at a home, that it needs to be retired publicly.”
The need is clearly evident, he said, and so is the desire to have old flags retired with proper care and respect.