Old Glory in Red, White, and Blue
Josh asked why the American flag is made up of the colors of red white and blue on my last post. I thought that question deserved its own post.
According to a book published by the House of Representatives, “Our Flag,” published in 1989 there is not officially any meaning to the colors of the American Flag. The stars and stripes colors were not given meaning when the flag was adopted by congress in 1777.
However the colors red, white and blue were given official meaning in the commissioning of our Great Seal on June 20, 1782. Charles Thompson, Secretary of the Continental Congress, reporting to Congress on the Seal, stated:
“The colors of the pales (the vertical stripes) are those used in the flag of the United States of America; White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valour, and Blue, the color of the Chief (the broad band above the stripes) signifies vigilance, perseverance & justice.”
Since that time many people have attributed the meaning of the colors of the Great Seal to that of our flag which has the same colors. I personally do not see a problem with that and actually did not know that the meaning of the flags colors are not actually applied to the flag its self until I had done some research. I think that even though it is not officially the meaning of our flags colors it is not unacceptable to say that the colors do have meaning even though the meaning has only officially been applied to the Great Seal by congress.
In addition, you all might be curious as to the meaning of the Stars and Stripes. ”The star is a symbol of the heavens and the divine goal to which man has aspired from time immemorial; the stripe is symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun,” according to a book published by Congress in 1977. There are fifty stars to represent each of the fifty states and thirteen stripes to represent the thirteen original colonies. (one of which was South Carolina! 
Another issue I would like to address in this blog is the making of the first flag. A favorite story of many teachers and flag enthusiasts is the making of the first flag. The first flag was supposed to have been made by Betsy Ross. I do not want to take away from the story of Betsy Ross, a strong and independant woman who ran her own business during the Revolutionary War to support her children. She was very patriotic and loved her country but she was not the first person to make our flag. (for more on the amazing life of Betsy Ross, I suggest you visit this site http://www.usflag.org/history/aboutbetsyross.html)
I hope this was an adequate answer to your question. Keep them coming everyone, there have been some great questions lately.
