 Somewhere along the way we lost the white in our nation's symbolic colors. Lately only two colors appear to make up our country--red and blue. It appears that politicians have conveniently placed us in either one or the other, depending upon our political and cultural preferences. Everything from public broadcasting to proposed initiatives is being viewed through a red or blue lens. And this color-coding approach is dividing us deeply as a nation.
This formula certainly was not the intent of our founding fathers when they gave birth to our country or designed the flag that would represent it.
When the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777, passed an act establishing our flag, the three colors--red, white and blue--had a distinctive meaning: Red symbolized hardiness and valor; white symbolized purity and innocence and blue represented vigilance, perseverance and justice.
The flag's design also reflected the balance of these attributes. The 13 stripes in the flag--alternating between red and white--not only represent the original 13 colonies, but also balanced hardiness (red) with innocence (white), because without a blending of these traits, maybe our ancestors would have questioned their efforts and not triumphed over the British.
Then there is the flag's blue square with its 50 stars, representing all the states in the union. This might be viewed as justice (blue) balanced by purity (white). Once again a necessary combination to win the Revolutionary War, although the original flag only had 13 stars. Without the use of white to soften blue and red, the attributes in these primary colors might have been at loggerheads, bringing us to exactly where we are today.
But the three colors combined symbolize the foundation of our country's birth and why citizens throughout America proudly fly their flags on July Fourth.
We, the people, are a lot smarter than the two-color process we have been relegated to, and much more complicated than red and blue.
Besides, when looking back at prior political mapping, it becomes quite obvious that red and blue, at least in the eyes of political cartographers and historians, are interchangeable colors.
In 1984, during the Reagan election, Republicans were blue and Democrats were red--the opposite of the 2004 election. Go back even further to the Nixon era and red symbolized communism, such as "Red" China and the former Soviet Union. Red was not a popular color no matter what political party affiliation citizens claimed during this era in our nation's history. Then, for a brief time after 9-11, many Americans returned to their tri-color roots, such as red ties with white shirts and blue suits or other clothing combinations that demonstrated patriotism.
Now, more than ever, we need white back in the scheme of our daily lives. We need it to balance the blue and red, and as a reminder of the words our founding fathers wrote at the end of the Declaration of Independence, which were ".... we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."
Nothing in the last phrase of this cornerstone document suggests we give a darn about what color we are. But everything in that last phrase suggests we should care about the importance of uniting our nation.
This July Fourth, take a moment to read the document that defines our country and remember that our flag represents all 50 states with the colors red, white and blue.
Moryt Milo is the editor of The Willow Glen Resident. She can be contacted at 400.200.1051 or mmilo@community-newspapers.com.
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