LEGION TO HOLD FLAG DISPOSAL CEREMONY

Members of Cape Girardeau American Legion Post 63 and its auxiliary will hold a Flag Day Retirement and Disposal Ceremony at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Cape Girardeau Veterans Home.

All faded, worn, tattered, torn, stained or otherwise unserviceable flags will be disposed of in a symbolic burning. Following the indoor ceremony, the flags will be burned in a brick pit outside the Veterans Home.

Jerry Stauber of the American Legion feels strongly about the proper disposal of the American flag.

"The flag represents all Americans, and I am sure all Americans want it to be disposed of in a reverent manner and wouldn't want it to be desecrated," Stauber said.

"If you want to express your feelings against this country and its government, that's fine," he said. "It's a right that I and my compatriots fought for you to have. But you don't have the right to desecrate a national symbol. It's what holds us together as a nation."

The American Legion is part of the Citizen Flag Alliance, whose purpose is to encourage the U.S. government to pass a constitutional amendment banning the desecration and undignified burning of flags.

The ceremony will also include a history lesson. Legion Commander Bert Lehman Jr. will read a short dissertation on the Pledge of Allegiance.

Stauber also researched the American flag, which was adopted by Congress June 14, 1777, and prepared another dissertation to be read about its history.

"There are a lot of things we don't know about our flag such as where the colors come from and what the different numbers of stars and stripes mean," he said.

For example, many people associate the flag's red with blood, he explained. In reality, each color has two or three reasons it is incorporated into the flag.

White signifies purity and innocence, red means hardiness and valor and blue shows vigilance, perseverance and justice.

The American Legion requests that anyone who has a faded, worn or torn flag drop it off at the Veterans Home or call the American Legion at 335-0305 for pickup.