The Flag touched the ground! Lift the Standard!

I found the most wonderful few moments in singing our national anthem. Funny though the lack of enthusiasm is growing in the crowds year after year. I am rather patriotic. I have known veterans of several wars. My husband and I are history buffs and have a greater appreciation for the cost of such a great land.
I have been to Russia twice and have witnessed a land with out Hope. It is a terrible thing. I am witnessing a scary apathy grow over the nation. Year after year. We grow fatter in our own consumption so fat as to be bogged down by it our flexibility has stiffened, resolve falters.

I was grieved last night for I was mocked for being patriotic. As if to care for our flag was a joke. I made cupcakes and I had placed little flags on them and it was pointed out that it was not very respectful so why should it matter if a little flag touched the ground?

This is why it matters to me...

When my Mother was a youth in the mid 1930's natzie groups came into Tennessee under the KKK organization to offer a sense of affiliation to American youth after the great depression.
Perhaps the fallen standards of history could teach us to lift it up. The peer pressure placed kids under great threat. She fled it and was under her own peril. HERE IN AMERICA

Our hearts are at war to do what is right and even in the wars of history long past. The one with great courage was given a task to hold the banner high so that it would inspire the others on. If the troops were able to keep the eye on the prize the prize was still available, attainable . When the flag hit the ground it was all over. The marksmen and snipers would watch for this and the flag bearer (that one who had to have such great courage) was the target. If the flagman were to be hit another, who would show the greatest courage by grasping the banner, would lift it at his own peril. Watch the movie Glory some time. It was an amazing force to behold, this contagious courage. There was a time when a black union soldier was asked to carry the flag he differed the responsibility because of the hurt he had known in this country. Later in the movie he held it with great honor, overcoming the hurt he had personally known, he acknowledge the bravery of his fellows and the certainty of a greater cause.
It is of the greatest honor tho be asked to be a flag bearer, and one is shown the greatest confidence and trust when asked. It matters. It matters to me.
So lift the banner of your life. If another is hitting the ground reach over and raise a standard. That is where the term came from. The standard of your life must not hit the ground.