Explain What The American Flag Means To Me Essay

There are a plethora of things we take for granted in our everyday lives. Among these things, and perhaps the greatest of them all, is the American flag, and there is evidence. Outrageously, at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, a group of college students, dissatisfied with the results of the recent presidential election, stole the American flag being flown over the college campus, and burned it on Veterans Day ! The very existence of this issue defies the three core principles of the American flag: freedom, patriotism. Those three points are what best describe what the American flag means to me. The definition of the word patriotism is the following: “Devotion to one’s country and concern for its defense”. One aspect of the American flag that symbolizes patriotism is the blue, which stands for vigilance among other things, in the canton. Vigilance falls under the criteria of patriotism as its definition is: “Watchfulness in respect to danger; care; caution; circumspection.” Watchfulness in respect to danger, in this case, to America. Another reason the American flag stands for patriotism is because the red stands for the blood spilled by soldiers fighting for our country. In fact, approximately 651,031 Americans have died in battle
It stands for freedom because many soldiers in the Revolutionary War lost their lives protecting the flag in order to escape the tyrannical and dictatorial government of Great Britain in order to achieve freedom and justice for all. The American flag also stands for freedom because of the amount of immigration we receive from oppressive regimes. Between the years of 2000 and 2010, we received 826,557 immigrants from China alone. China being one of the harshest governments currently on the planet, with their citizens tolerating birth limitations, censorship of speech, etc. Why would someone leave the clasp of a cruel and autocratic government, just to be seized by