Show your support for the war against terrorism by sporting an American Flag Lapel Pin. More often than not, the simple act of wearing an American flag lapel pin is enough to remind us of our common goals. American flag lapel pins without doubt, promote patriotism, honor, pride and unity.
American flag lapel pins are one of the most in-demand lapel pins in the market today. They are perfect as inspirational gifts. Companies use them to encourage productivity and harmony among their employees. Teachers hand them out to their students to motivate them into becoming conscientious citizens in the future. Officials and their staff will always have their own stock of American flag lapel pins. And chances are, your grandfather may even have a personal collection of American flag lapel pins that he would have had accumulated through the years.
For whatever noble reasons you may have, make sure that the American flag lapel pin you are ordering bears the exact details of the U.S. Flag; from the number of its stars and stripes, to its colors. To be technical about it, in the Pantone System, the colors of the U.S. flag should be Blue PMS 281 and Red PMS 193.
How Well Do You Know The U.S. Flag?
. Did you know that the U.S. flag has a total of 50 white (for purity and innocence) stars on a blue (for vigilance, perseverance and justice) background representing the 50 states of the United States of America? Then there are 13 alternate stripes - seven are red (for hardiness and valor) and six are white (again, for purity and innocence) representing its 13 original states or colonies.
. The 50th star was added to the American flag in 1960. It represented the state of Hawaii. A new star is added to the flag each time a new state joins the Union.
. History says that it was on May 1776 when Betsy Ross, a Philadelphian, reports that she sewed the first American flag. The American flag has been changed many times since then.
. Francis Scott Key writes "The Star-Spangled Banner," originally a poem, on September 14, 1814. Music was later on made and adapted to the poem which officially became America's national anthem in 1931.
. Explorer Robert Peary, the first man to have reached what he thought was the top of the world, arrived at the North Pole on April 6, 1909 and planted the U.S. flag that his wife personally sewed.
. The U.S. Flag was placed on top of Mount Everest by mountaineer Barry Bishop in 1963.
. It was on July 20, 1969 that the American flag was placed on the moon by astronaut Neil Armstrong.
Pledge of Allegiance
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the United States of America
and to the republic for which it stands:
one nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.
The National Anthem
"The Star-Spangled Banner"
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Francis Scott Key
(1779 - 1843)
