Largest Flying US Flag Shredded by Storm, Brings Old Johnny Cash Song to Life
The United States of America has had a rough go of things this year. So far, 2020 has brought us a major viral pandemic, community-crushing lockdowns and riots that have left the country’s largest cities smoldering.
Not even the largest flying U.S. flag in the world escaped this year unharmed and was shredded by a vicious storm.
The patriotic installation, located in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, was reduced to tatters Tuesday after weathering the violent winds. (The flag has since been replaced, according to WTMJ-TV.)
The iconic Acuity Insurance flag in Sheboygan – the largest free-flying American flag in the country – has been torn in half after tonight’s storms.
?: Avdil Luma pic.twitter.com/89fUWlsF4d
— TMJ4 News (@tmj4) June 3, 2020
Late singer-songwriter Johnny Cash tells a story of another American flag in disrepair in “Ragged Old Flag.”
The song relates the story of a man who wanders into a small town. Noticing a tattered flag flying at the courthouse, he asks an old local about the shocking state of Old Glory.
“We’re kinda proud of that ragged old flag,” the local responds.
The flag’s various burns, tears and holes are all attributed to conflicts and wars in America’s history where the banner was present. Through the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812 and the fight at the Alamo, that ragged old flag was there.
The flag saw action in World Wars I and II, and even in Korea and Vietnam. The local says that in the worst of it, the flag hung “limp and low a time or two.”
Foreign enemies are not the only adversaries our flag has faced.
“She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,” Cash sang, “and now they’ve about quit waving her back here at home. In her own good land here she’s been abused. She’s been burned, dishonored, denied and refused.”
While Cash may not be with us anymore, his words couldn’t ring more true.
Flag burnings and overall hatred for Old Glory seem to be increasingly common during protests and riots as destabilizing elements in our own country seek to undermine it.
“She’s been through the fire before,” the old-timer in the song says, “and I believe she can take a whole lot more.”
If you haven’t heard this Cash classic, listen to it below. Be warned: It can bring a tear to a glass eye.
With America in somewhat of a state of turmoil, there are likely those who believe the day when the U.S. flag is lowered for good is right around the corner. For all of us patriots, however, we know this storm will one day be just another memory of our beloved ragged old flag.
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