A Celebration of Flag Day

"Our Flag" by Celeste Barber and "An Appeal to Heaven" by Mary Hudson

“Our Flag” by Fred Tripp

“Our Flag” by Celeste Barber

The Story of “Our Flag”

This is a story about the flag of our country, the United States of America… Actually, it’s the story behind a painting of the flag. About twenty years ago, while visiting my sister in Texas, we strolled along a picturesque town square in a small village. The scene was straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting; its 19^th century courthouse could have been re-assembled from any one of a hundred New England towns and plopped into the center of Granbury, Texas. Kim suggested we stop by an antique shop there. Among the clutter and dust, there it was. An old lithograph of the American flag in a chipped wooden frame. Not much, except that the picture beckoned to me.

I stood there for some minutes.

Before me wasn’t the majestic image of a billowing flag typically rendered in patriotic art. The flag draped straight down and around its pole, not a hint of breeze, with clouds and evergreen treetops serving as background. The musty antique shop reflected for me the grace – (Yes, grace. That’s the word I seek.) – captured in the painting.

I took Our Flag home with me to California. And then, I set about learning the story behind the lithograph. I just knew, there had to be a wonderful story.

You may already be acquainted with Fred Tripp’s oil painting of Our Flag (1940). There are thousands of lithographs across the country, and copies are still printed through the National Archives. I learned that while Mr. Tripp was a patient at McCleary Hospital in Excelsior Springs, Missouri; his window directly faced the post office across the street.

Every morning during his convalescing, he awakened to the sight of our flag.

Imagine.

Never having taken a brush stroke before in his life, 71-year-old Fred Tripp then created an oil painting that was to become the most famous artistic rendering of the American flag in our nation’s history. That fact holds true to this day.

Following his recuperation, Mr. Tripp presented the six-foot-tall oil painting as a gift to the hospital, where it was prominently displayed. In turn, McCleary Hospital paid the generous gift forward and mailed thousands of lithographs to former patients across the country.

All 200,000 of them.

Following the 1941 declaration of war, demand increased among the public for a visible symbol of patriotism, and a commercial company took charge (Eisenhower Archives). Many homes displayed the Tripp lithograph in their homes, a symbol of patriotic fervor as the United States waged war on two fronts against formidable enemies.

“Our Flag” is hung just inside and to the left of my front entryway. I glance at the picture throughout the day, every day. I like to imagine that someday when I am gone, the lithograph finds its way again to a thrift shop and another American responds as I did: struck by the patriotic love of country represented through the simple image of the flag.

Shame on SBCC Board of Trustees

Today, I am haunted by the memory of another flag. This one was a little cheap fabric flag stapled to a wooden pole, the kind for sale in drugstores just before the 4^th of July. I purposefully took the little flag with me to a Santa Barbara City College Board of Trustees meeting. That was 4 pm, Thursday afternoon, January 24, 2019. The Board President had ended the established practice of opening their monthly meetings with a recitation of the “Pledge of Allegiance.” So, I determined that if they would not, I would – during Public Comment.

What took place during those minutes was shameful. Incited by faculty, those in the audience attempted to silence me through intimidation, shouting, calling out the “racist” trope, and stomping of feet.

I held up the little flag in my right hand, reciting with hand over heart. I could feel deep inside the threat of the mob – and they were a mob by this time. Not so much a threat to me, although my fear was genuine, but to our right to stand in a public place and speak without being silenced, or worse.

The threat to our commitment to stand as one people, despite our differences.

The danger of surrendering the individual self to mob hysteria.

That, too.

Last, the threat to that tiny drugstore flag which looked as beautiful to me as any flag I have ever seen anywhere in our country.

The pledge that I recited in a college lecture hall replicates the oath that every elected official takes upon assuming public office, from tax collector to the presidency -- and including college trustees.

On this Flag Day, let’s renew our allegiance to this blessed country.

Fly your flag.

Wear your flag pin.

Tell your children and grandchildren a story about our flag. Many paid a dear price so that we may freely stand in the shadow of Old Glory.

- Celeste Barber

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"An Appeal to Heaven" by Mary Hudson

An Appeal to Heaven

The Pine Tree Flag predated our American flag. Known as “An Appeal to Heaven” emblem, it was created and flown after the Pine Tree Riot in 1772.

The pine tree is a traditional symbol of New England. And the pine tree riot was one of the first acts of resistance by American colonists to British royal authority. It eventually culminated in the American Revolution.

This phrase “appeal to heaven,” appears in John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government, which Locke used in England to describe the right of revolution in 1690. This is the right or duty of a people to “alter or abolish” a government that acts against their common interests or threatens the safety of the people without justifiable cause. The belief in this right has been used to justify revolutions including the American, French, Russian, and Iranian revolutions. This flag was the official maritime ensign for the commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The actual Pine Tree Riot occurred in Weare, New Hampshire, right before the American Revolution. New Hampshire’s oppressive pine tree law finally sparked a little-known colonial uprising in 1772. Britain had few trees big enough for their warships, So the Crown reserved the tall white pines of northern New England for itself. Timber was to the world at that time what oil is to the world today: a finite resource for which nations competed

Colonists Forbidden to Cut Down their Own Trees

The British parliament passed a pine tree law in 1722 under King George I that decreed settlers could not cut down any trees larger than 12 inches in diameter. Colonists would need a license to cut their white pines, and fines were established for infractions. But the law was basically ignored until John Wentworth became Governor in 1767. He recognized the revenue potential for England as the appointed Surveyor of the King’s Woods. Wentworth appointed deputies to carry out the law and even did his own inspections of the lumber mills while a servant drove him around in his carriage. The consequence for a local to cut down a marked tree for a cabin, barn or meeting house was arrest and fines. And this was for townspeople to cut down their own trees on their own land!

No wonder the law was so unpopular. The county sheriff and his deputy were charged with delivering warrants and making arrests in the king’s name. Men from other towns paid the fines but those from Weare refused. Consequently, the Weare men were labeled “Notorious offenders.” The British fined any landowner who would not give up his white pine trees larger than 12 inches in diameter to the British Navy. The Navy needed these trees for their mast boards for their ships since these strong pine boards resisted most gale winds. The British won many wars because of the sturdiness of their ships, thanks to these trees. When the Sheriff arrived to arrest the major offender, Ebenezer Mudgett, he promised to pay his fine the next day. The officials then spent the night at a nearby inn for an overnight stay.

News hit the town that the Sheriff was there to arrest Mudgett if he failed to show up with the fine. However, 20 townsmen arrived at the Sherriff’s hotel room early the next morning and nearly beat him severely; they also cropped his horses’ ears and sheared their manes and tails. The Sheriff and his deputy were literally run out of town on these poor animals.

Equal Justice Under the Law

The perpetrators were caught but were given only 20 schilling fines for roughing up the Sheriff over this. The local judge was on their side because these farmers were having to give up their trees for nothing to Englishmen who were acting like tyrants. The light fines emboldened Americans and it encouraged the Boston Tea Party to take place a year and a half later. After that came the American Revolutionary war, won miraculously under the command of General George Washington. Fly your flag proudly this Flag Day and demonstrate your love for the United States which has set so many people free.

The 13-star version of the first American flag was established in 1777. The one we use today consists of 13 equal alternating horizontal red and white stripes with a blue rectangle in the canton. This is referred to as the union. It bears fifty small white five-pointed stars, representing our 50 states. The 13 stripes display the 13 British colonies that declared independence from Great Britain. These are the colonies that went on to secure their victory in the American Revolutionary war. The American flag is 247 years old.

Ps 47:3 says God subdues people and nations and we are to sing praises while He does it. Being thankful no matter what situation you are in creates a pathway for your deliverance.

- Mary Hudson

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Interested in participating in today’s Flag Day Rally in Goleta/Santa Barbara? click here for more information.

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