Donuts for all
Posted on 01/31/2002 6:50:30 AM PST by Jeff Head
This is an update report to those who have signed, or who are contemplating signing, the:
"Depict the Flag Raising at Ground Zero of the WTC Attack as it actually Occurred!" Petition
It is also to those who have otherwise supported that effort in any way. The purpose is to give a status and let you know plans for the petition.
First, let me thank those who have signed or supported this effort to insure that an accurate memorial is erected to the victims and heroes of 9-11, instead of anything based on a political agenda. The activism of thousands i showing just what people can accomplish if they take a mind to.
There are now over 127,500 signatures in sixteen days!
This issue has struck a nerve in tens of thousands of people all across this nation. That number is growing to hundreds of thoiusands, and I am sure if people were aware of it, it would grow to millions. Revisionism and political correctness are not going to be tolerated with respect to 9-11. They should never be tolerated and perhaps this issue and this effort will start the ball rolling that way.
Specifically, the effort is paying off and together with the firefighters themselves and the many thousands of others who have protested, it has resulted in New York City scrapping plans for an altered flag raising statue. Ultimate plans have not yet been announced, and so there is still a chance that they will propose some other politically driven memorial which alters the history of what happened that day. Therefore according to the 2nd point in the petition, which indicates that only a historically accurate memorial should be erected, the petition is continuing. It will do so until final plans are announced for a historically accurate memorial not based on any political agenda.
In that regard, I am also writing to let you know the current plans for the petition and its signatures.
It is my intent intent to have the first 100,000 signatures delivered directly to the City of New York and the New York City Fire Department as soon as possible. I intend to give two copies of professionally bound signatures (which will amount to ten volumes of five hundred pages of signatures each) to firefighters there in New York City who can in turn present them to the Fire Department and to the Mayor and/or his representatives. I would hope to attract media attention to that event, but intend to do it with or without the media. I would then repeat this process at the 250,000, the 500,000 and the one million signature marks if the petition goes that far, which I hope it does.
I believe that stacks of bound signatures from all over the country piled on politicians' and planners' desks will help insure that we hold those same politicians' and planners' feet to the fire. It will help insure than no more political nonsense and revisionism is applied to any ememorial dedicated to any event of that tragic day, 9-11. Tragedy that turned to heroism that generated patriotism and unity across this entire nation.
The effort required to make this happen will not be incosequential. Electronically extracting the 100,000 names, formatting them, professionally printing them, copying them, professionally binding them and then delivering them to New York City will take considerable effort and expense. Anyone who is interested in the details of that effort and who agrees with the importance of it, and would like to help, please contact me at the following email address and I will send you the details regarding how you can help.
Any excess funds that result from this effort will be donated proportionally to the IAFF New York Fire Fighters 911 Disaster Relief Fund, the Port Authority Police WTC Disaster Survivors Fund, and to NYPD and EMS worker funds established directly by those associations for the support of families of personnel killed or injured on 9-11.
Thank you for your time, and again, either way, thank you for your support in this effort to insure that we depict accurately what occurred on 9-11. It must remain accurate so that we can always remember and never forget those who died or were injured ... and so that we can therefore maintain our national sovereignty and liberty against those who would destroy them.
Donuts for all
Betsy Ross and the American Flag
Betsy would often tell her children, grandchildren, relatives, and friends of the fateful day when three members of a secret committee from the Continental Congress came to call upon her. Those representatives, George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross, asked her to sew the first flag. This meeting occurred in her home some time late in May 1776. George Washington was then the head of the Continental Army. Robert Morris, an owner of vast amounts of land, was perhaps the wealthiest citizen in the Colonies. Colonel George Ross was a respected Philadelphian and also the uncle of her late husband, John Ross.
Naturally, Betsy Ross already knew George Ross as she had married his nephew. Furthermore, Betsy was also acquainted with the great General Washington. Not only did they both worship at Christ Church in Philadelphia, but Betsy's pew was next to George and Martha Washington's pew. Her daughter recalled, "That she was previously well acquainted with Washington, and that he had often been in her house in friendly visits, as well as on business. That she had embroidered ruffles for his shirt bosoms and cuffs, and that it was partly owing to his friendship for her that she was chosen to make the flag."
In June 1776, brave Betsy was a widow struggling to run her own upholstery business. Upholsterers in colonial America not only worked on furniture but did all manner of sewing work, which for some included making flags. According to Betsy, General Washington showed her a rough design of the flag that included a six-pointed star. Betsy, a standout with the scissors, demonstrated how to cut a five-pointed star in a single snip. Impressed, the committee entrusted Betsy with making our first flag.
Until that time, colonies and militias used many different flags. Some are famous, such as the "Rattlesnake Flag" used by the Continental Navy, with its venomous challenge, "Don't Tread on Me."
This is not surprising. Many colonists considered themselves loyal subjects of Britain -- many colonists came from Britain, and King George III ruled over the colonies.
In Boston, on that New Year's Day, the Loyalists (supporters of Britain) had been circulating a recent King George speech, offering the Continental forces favorable terms if they laid down their arms. These Loyalists were convinced that the King's speech had impressed the Continentals into surrendering -- as a sign of the Continentals' "surrender," the Loyalists mistook the flying of the Grand Union flag over Prospect Hill as a show of respect to King George. In fact, however, the Continentals knew nothing of the speech until later. Washington wrote in a letter dated January 4, "By this time, I presume, they begin to think it strange we have not made a formal surrender of our lines."
Obviously a new flag was needed.
According to Betsy Ross's dates and sequence of events, in May the Congressional Committee called upon her at her shop. She finished the flag either in late May or early June 1776. In July, the Declaration of Independence was read aloud for the first time at Independence Hall. Amid celebration, the Liberty Bell tolled, heralding the birth of a new nation.
Much suffering and loss of life would result, however, before the United States would completely sever ties with Britain. Betsy Ross herself lost two husbands to the Revolutionary War. During the conflict the British appropriated her house to lodge soldiers. Through it all she managed to run her own upholstery business (which she continued operating for several decades after the war) and after the soldiers left, she wove cloth pouches which were used to hold gunpowder for the Continentals.
On June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress, seeking to promote national pride and unity, adopted the national flag. "Resolved: that the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation."
239 Arch Street, Philadelphia, a few blocks from the Liberty Bell, we find the 13-star Betsy Flag proudly welcoming visitors to this shrine to the American flag and Betsy Ross.
A. Robert Peary, who left pieces of the flag scattered at the North Pole.
Q. Is it ever appropriate to fly the flag upside down?
A. Yes, but only in an emergency. It means "Help Me, I am in Trouble!"
Q. Francis Scott Key wrote the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner" on the back on an envelope. What is the source of the music for it?
A. The music is from an old English drinking song called "To Anacreon in Heaven."
Q. The American flag first flew over a foreign fort in what country?
A. Libya -- over Fort Derne, on the shores of Tripoli.
Q. A vexillologist is an expert in what?
A. The history of flags.
Q. "Shipwreck" Kelly (1885-1952) was famous for sitting for long periods of time. What did he have to do with flags?
A. He set many flagpole-sitting records. He sat for 49 days on one flagpole. He once estimated that he spent a total of over 20,000 hours sitting on flagpoles. Flagpole sitting was a craze started in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1929.
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