Recently, I was asked by the Webster Park Association to write about why we fly the flag here at Holy Redeemer. This is how I replied:
Having just arrived in Webster last year, I just took it for granted: we have a flag pole outside of our church. We let the flag fly.
I am half German, half Irish. I don’t know a whole lot about my father’s (German) family. I am guessing they came in the first part of the 19th Century. I have record of them being in Franklin County (I was stationed at a parish that my great, great grandparents donated to the church) from the 1830’s. My mother’s family came from Ireland right before the First World War. Grandma was from Newry in Northern Ireland and Grandpa was from a farm in County Leitrim. He was the youngest of 10, so there was not much opportunity for him in the old country. He always said that the only thing he left in Ireland was an empty stomach. They all came looking for a new and better life for themselves and their descendants. Mission accomplished.
Let’s face it, America is not perfect. The Preamble of the Constitution says “We the People, in order to form a more perfect union. . .” So that flag represents us, all of us, We the People, and we are called to make this land better, more just, freer. Have we fallen short at times? Of course, way short. I met a man once who was interred in a camp in the Second World War… an American camp. Though, he was of Japanese descent, both of his parents were born in the US. They were all US citizens. They were “We the People.” Yet during WWII they were “the enemy.” They were rounded up, lost their businesses and their freedom. Terri- ble. Nevertheless, sixty years later, that man looks back on that as a turning point of his life. He got out of the camp and became a productive citizen, husband, father and grandfather. He talked about watching planes fly over the camp and decided to become a pilot. He helped make this country “more perfect.” The flag does not represent perfection, but rather the striving for it.
I like how Ben Franklin put it in the musical 1776, a show I was privileged to be in three
times. “We’ve spawned a new race here, Mr. Dickenson. Rougher, simpler; more violent, more enterprising; less refined. We’re a new nationality. We require a new nation.” Our greatest
strengths often expose our greatest weaknesses, but more often than not it works the other way around. We have our faults and it can get awfully messy, but that is exactly when creativity, ingenuity and generosity flourish.
God Bless America.
Father Kevin