The Superior Express -

On Monday, Americans celebrated one of the most iconic symbols of freedom the world has ever known: the American flag. The date wasnʼt picked by accident. On the same day in 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Act, which read, "Resolved: That the flag of the 13 United States be 13 stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be 13 stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." George Washington described this design as taking "the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity, representing our liberty." The American flag shines a beacon of hope for liberty-loving people around the world. Wherever Americans have gone, our flag has followed, from Iwo Jima to the liberation of Nazi camps to the surface of the Moon. Along with liberty, our flag represents unity. The original 13 colonies didnʼt think of themselves as one country at first – Benjamin Franklin famously drew a political cartoon showing the colonies as separate parts of a snake, with the caption, "Join, or die." According to the historian James McPherson, even after we joined together to win our independence from Great Britain, Americans still said things like, "The United States are a republic." It wasnʼt until after the Civil War that we began to say, "The United States is." As Nebraskans, we understand both of these things well. Our pioneer ancestors loved liberty so much they were willing to risk everything to make better lives for themselves on the untamed, and sometimes harsh, prairie. And like all of the states who have joined the union since the Revolutionary War, we chose unity with the rest of the country because we know we are stronger when we are united. -Sen. Deb Fischer