Okay, good morning, everybody.

Um, good morning, distinguished guests, neighbors, friends.

Thank you for joining us today as we gather to celebrate Flag Day, a day dedicated to the very symbol that represents our home, our values, and our unity.

From schoolyards to battlefields, from front porches to the moon, the American flag has stood as a beacon of hope and resilience for nearly two and a half centuries.

Today we don't just celebrate the design of the flag, we celebrate the people, the diversity, and the ideals that keep it flying high.

Thank you all for coming out to share in this moment of community pride.

Um next up, we're going to have the Pledge of Alleas Pledge of Allegiance by Detective Greg Herring.

Yes.

Under God, indivisible liberty and justice for all.

Next, we're going to have an invocation by Bishop Leak.

Bishop, welcome.

As we bow our heads, almighty God.

We come before you today to give thanks for the blessings of freedom and the nation we call home.

As we honor our American flag, we recognize it is more than a banner or fabric of colors.

It is a symbol.

Our call to live together as neighbors and friends.

We ask that you bless this flag and all who serve under it.

May it red stand for the courage and sacrifice for those who protect our liberty.

It's white for the purity of our highest ideals, and it's blue for the vigilance required to maintain justice for all.

Guide our leaders, protect our citizens, and keep our nation under peace, hope, and purpose.

We offer you our praise and ask for your continued grace upon the United States of America.

In your name, your holy name we pray, let all let agree say Amen.

Okay.

Um I just have a few remarks.

We we we gather here today, not just to celebrate the stars and stripes, but to stand on the precipice of history.

In just a few short weeks, our nation will mark its semi-quincentenal, a massive milestone.

250 years since a courageous group of patriots signed the Direct Declaration of Independence.

For two and a half centuries, that flag has evolved, adding stars as we grew, but its core promise has never changed.

As we look up at it today, in this historic year of 250, we see the blueprint of our past, the reality of our present, and the endless horizon of our future.

Thank you again for being part of this milestone celebration.

On June 14th, 1777, the second Continental Congress passed a simple resolution declaring the flag of the United States be made of 13 stripes, alternating red and white, and 13 white stars on a field of blue.

With those words, a symbol was born.

But as we look at old glory flying above us today, we know it is much more than fabric, thread, and dye.

It is a living chronicle of American history.

The red stands for hardiness and valor.

It represents the courage of the generations who fought, sacrificed, and gave all to defend our nation's ideals.

The white signifies purity and innocence, a reminder of the clean slate upon which our founders sought to build a new kind of nation governed by the people.

It is a reminder that freedom is not a static prize we won in the past, but a constant daily pursuit.

Thank you, David.

Thank you.

Good morning, and thank everyone for coming out, coming out on this for Flag Day today.

A flag, a piece of colored cloth that's light to the touch, but carries a heavy load of a people and their history.

The American flag has changed over the course of our nearly 250 years, gaining stars and growing, just as the people who have hoisted it in the air in the cities is flown over.

The beauty of a flag is that it's a banner that can bring people together.

Our nation's motto, e pluribus unum, Latin for, out of many, one represents the best idea of this nation, that people from different nations, ethnicities, religions, and walks of life can come together and be part of something greater than themselves.

America is a constant work in progress.

But as long as we can remember the spirit of unity represented by the flag, we keep alive the spirit that makes our nation great.

Thank you.

Next up, I'd like to welcome to the stage, City Manager Wilfredo Melendez.

I think uh one thing we got to remember, and what the one of the original uh purposes of of this day was uh is to really bring together um a fractured nation under one banner.

And I think that's so so fitting that the original intent till today's meeting.

Um this day was signed as a national observance by President Truman back in 1949.

So fast forward 77 years as we prepare to celebrate this 250th anniversary of our country.

We also got to remember the lives that lived under this flag, those sacrifices that were made in honor of it, and the ideas represented by the 50 stars, the 13 stripes we fly today.

Our historian is here today to go into more details about that history, and I'm really looking forward to that.

But I just want to emphasize what the one of the true meanings was to really bring together a fractured nation.

Um, so I thank you to uh police department, fire department, buildings for keeping this going, our HR, our comms department and IT putting this event together for the 30 year in a row.

So with that, I want to hand it off to um Dennis Starr from the American Legion.

Just a couple words.

Ladies and gentlemen, honored guests and members of our community.

Excuse me.

I am here today representing the members of American Legion Post 8.

And I would be remiss if I didn't announce, because he does the invocation at all of these city ceremonies, our wonderful first vice commander, Bishop Leak, who serves not only his church, but also the Legion with distinction.

Thank you, Bishop.

Why does the American Legion place such an emphasis on a day that is not an official federal or even a state holiday in most places?

The answer is simple.

Respect.

Since the founding of our organization, the American Legion has recognized that the flag of the United States is our nation's most enduring symbol of freedom, sacrifice, and unity.

Today we pause to reflect on what old glory truly represents.

It is more than fabric and colors.

It is a badge of honor, a reminder of the values and traditions that have bound us as one nation for two and a half centuries.

The red stripes stand for the courage and bloodshed of those who fought for liberty from the revolution through our current wars and conflicts.

These are values that we believe are worth celebrating.

We honor the clause embodying these values by teaching flag etiquette in our schools and communities.

American Legion Posts in communities throughout the country and overseas conduct dignified flag retirement ceremonies to ensure unserviceable flags are disposed of with the reverence they deserved, often on this very day.

And in this semi-quincentennial year, our role has never been more vital.

77 years ago, a proud and active legionnaire by the name of Harry S.

Truman signed an act of Congress which designates June 14th as flag day.

It also happens to be the birthday of the greatest army on earth.

This is not a coincidence.

Those who defend our freedom can celebrate the symbol of that same freedom on the very same day.

In a few weeks, we will celebrate not just 250 years of history, but a renewed commitment to the next 250 years of service, sacrifice, and pride.

You cannot celebrate a great nation without celebrating its greatest heroes, our veterans.

So today let us renew our pledge to honor the flag to serve our communities and to inspire future generations with the spirit that has carried America forward since 1776.

God bless the flag of the United States of America.

God bless our veterans, and God bless the United States of America.

Thank you.

Good morning.

I um want you to use your imagination a little bit.

So we're going to go back 101 years ago.

Back in the 1700s, whatever country it was, armies and navies would use a flag to identify their ship, to identify their regiment.

You can imagine amidst the smoke of black powder during the heat of war.

A flag would identify who it was that was actually firing those arms.

The flag served as central rallying points for regiments to maintain functions as well on land.

When the colonists organized, their flags were often artistically designed to express the push for liberty and as they asserted independence from British rule with mottos often reflecting defiance.

Now these there were hundreds of these made from the times the Patriots first organized, all locally done, all hand embroidered by women who often accompanied the men in the fields.

So just two months later, General George Washington would be riding along the Boston Post Road into New York and stopping in New Rochelle.

He was accompanied by General Philip Schuyler, who actually knew the town well.

He had gone to school here, attending Reverend Stopes School.

Reverend Stope was the minister of what is now our Trinity Episcopal Church congregation.

And in a letter that Schuyler wrote to Congress, he mentioned that they met with Colonel Waterberry and Colonel Worcester.

So the first flags that were flown during the revolution were at that time.

They were the colors, as it was called, of the two Connecticut regiments of volunteers.

If you can imagine a flag with a big circle that was the symbol for Connecticut, all the Connecticut regiments used that, but would do them in on different colored fabric.

So Colonel Worcester's regiment was a flag with a yellow field, and Colonel Waterberry's was white.

And we can imagine their troops coming through New Rochelle at the orders of General Washington to start defending New York City.

The next flag that would probably fly in these areas was one that would become known as the Grand Union flag.

It was also called Continental Colors, the Cambridge Flag, and the Congress flag.

General George Washington conceived of this flag, recognizing that the colonists needed a unifying and identifying symbol.

So now use your imagination.

It's a flag similar to the one we have today, but instead of the field of blue, it was the Union Jack.

The 13 stripes represented the colonies, while the Union Jack reflected at the time, a still contested allegiance to the Crown.

This flag, the Grand Union flag, was famously raised at Prospect Hill on January 1st, 1776, marking the birth of the Continental Army.

Now, back to Neurochell.

In October 1776, the militia nearby was preparing.

It was preparing because the British had entered what is now New York City.

Colonel Joseph Drake, a Neurochell man who had his house on what is now Drake Avenue, was the head of militia, the first militia for Westchester County.

He was active in the Sons of Liberty before retiring from business in New York City, and he moved to Neurochale in 1770.

He was supervisor of the town, similar to mayor, in 1774, and colonel, as I said, of the 1st Regiment of the Westchester County militia.

And he would be a delegate from Westchester to the first provincial congress of New York.

So his militia, the men here, and the women who followed them to cook for them, to care for them, was responsible for guarding the Long Island Sound border of the county, while General Washington and his troops retreated from New York to White Plains, and that would be October.

Now the first sign of military activity would actually be the Battle of Pells Point, which was actually in Pelham.

And that battle was led, defended, defending our territory by John Glover.

His troops probably carried a flag, again, use your imagination, that was a pine tree.

That's because his troops were primarily sailors.

John Glover was from Marblehead.

He was appointed an ensign to the Marblehead Militia Regiment.

Gradually moving up through the ranks, he became the commanding colonel.

At the start of 1776, this group formally became the 14th Continental Regiment, and it was comprised of 600 seamen, tradesmen, merchants, and laborers from Marblehead and nearby towns, and it included Native Americans, African Americans, and men of Jewish and Spanish descent.

It was one of the first integrated units and American service, and their second major military activity was right here on our soil.

They would probably be known as the regiment that saved the American Revolution.

They were also the ones to help General Washington when he was crossing the Delaware.

Had it not been for John Glover and his marbleheaders, it wouldn't have happened.

So that was the flag that they carried.

It was called An Appeal to Heaven, written embroidered on the bottom of the Pine Tree.

And it represented the American colonies' fight for independence.

That would have been the militia that were taking up arms to protect our soil when there were 10,000 British and Hessian troops encamped here in Neurochell October 1776.

Imagine.

And we have an account of Moses Clark as a six-year-old.

He said, I was born in seventeen seventy seventeen seventeen sixty-three, and saw the British army pass my father's shortly before the Battle of White Plains.

My father's place was just north of Tom Paine's farm later.

So the last flag I'm going to talk about with the revolution was that of the Battle of White Plains.

Those five hundred troops made their way up what is now North Avenue onto the Albany Post Road into White Plains, where they would fight an extraordinarily important battle on October twenty-eighth.

At the time, there was the Liberty flag flying above the troops.

It was a tight, there were two swords, one of which had a tight fitting hat that would become a popular symbol for the fight of independence and freedom.

It would often be carried on a staff during a parade or rally, and later became a common feature on a coin.

So then June 14th, as you've heard, the Continental Congress adopted the flag we know today, with the thirteen um stripes representing the colonies and the stars that would be added on for each of the states.

But would fight under that same flag that we all celebrate with our diversity today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, we're gonna have uh our fire chief uh who's a had many, many years of service here, Andy Sandor, do the flag day speech and the flag folding.

Thank you, Paul.

Please be seated.

Color guard stand at ease.

Really appreciate everybody taking the time to come out today.

Um bearing with us the fact we've made the decision to move it inside in consideration of the crowd.

We had no idea if the sun was gonna be beaten down today or whatever, so we said probably a good idea to move the uh ceremony inside.

Um, and again, this is important.

We appreciate everybody coming out.

Um giving your time.

The stars and stripes of our U.S.

flag have brought inspiration and hope to generations of Americans since the founding of our country.

Now, this is a similar similar, it's a basically the same uh talk we gave last year, and we try not to make it too long.

While in custody of the British, while working as a as a prisoner exchange during the War of 1812 with Francis Scott Key, after a night of intense embardom at Fort Bombardment at Fort Henry in the port of Baltimore.

He was so moved the next morning upon seeing the flag flying over the fort.

That's when the national anthem was written.

He penned it right then and there.

William Carney, another great American.

Sergeant, one of many veterans who would bleed for the flag.

Born into slavery, his family fled the South via the Underground Railroad.

During the Civil War, he would join the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, one of the Union's first all black regiments, and subject of the movie Glory.

Sergeant Carney fought valiantly at the battle of at the Battle of Fort Wagner, South Carolina.

When the color sergeant went down at the front of the ranks, Sergeant Carney grabbed his U.S.

flag, led the way up to the top of the parapet, and planted it.

That's a real story, not just in the movie.

Sergeant Carney became the first African-American recipient, recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, and it was awarded for his defense of the U.S.

flag.

So some of the strife that we go through in our country's history, we've gone through before, but we move forward, and we try to remain positive.

Protest and political unrest at that time made the flag an unpopular symbol for many Americans.

One Olympian would have none of it.

He was a 19-year-old boxer from Houston, Texas, who won the gold medal by knocking out his Soviet opponent.

George Foreman, a future two-time world heavyweight champion and grill entrepreneur, grasped a small American flag and then waved it in the center of the ring after his victory.

He quoted, the only regret that is that I didn't have two flags to wave, he said in a 2013 interview.

I mean because the country hasn't only been great for me, but I have grandkids now, and I want to show them how great it is.

Millions of viewers worldwide needed no convincing.

They had seen the flag many times before, as they were liberated from fascist, tyrannical, and communist regimes.

For them, the flag wasn't just a symbol of the United States.

It was and remains today a symbol of freedom, a symbol of inspiration, and a symbol of hope.

Again, thank you all for coming out today.

So now we go into the full our flag folds.

And once we do our flag folds, the ceremony will almost be over, and Paul will invite everybody to come out and uh out the front door.

Now, everybody's familiar with the flagfolds that we do at like a military funeral.

It's a deeply symbolic act.

All right.

Each of the 13 folds traditionally holds specific meanings, which you may not have known about.

While these meanings are not officially codified by the U.S.

government or the military, they have become part of a widely recognized and respected tradition.

The portion of the flag denoting honor is the Canton field of blue.

The stars representing the states are veterans served in uniform.

The field of blue dresses from left to right and is inverted, excuse me, is inverted only when draped as a funeral cloth over the casket of a veteran who has served our country honorably in uniform.

And the U.S.

armed forces at the ceremony of retreat, the flag is lowered, folded in a triangle, and kept under watch throughout the night as a tribute to our nation's honored dead.

The next morning it is brought out and at the ceremony of revely, flown high as a symbol of belief in the resurrection of the body.

And then we have the first fold.

The first fold of our flag is a symbol of life.

The third fold is made in honor and remembrance of the veteran departing our ranks and who gave a portion of his or her life for the defense of our country to attain a peace throughout the world.

The fourth fold represents our weaker nature.

As American citizens trusting in God, it is him we turn to in times of peace as well in time as well as in times of war for his divine guidance.

But it is still our country, right or wrong.

The sixth fold is for where our hearts lie.

It is with our heart that we 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.

It has been through their faith, love, loyalty, and devotion that has molded the character of the men and women who have made this country great.

The tenth fold is a tribute to Father, who has also given his sons and daughters for the defense of our country since he or she was first born.

The eleventh fold represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon and glorifies the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The twelfth fold represents an emblem of eternity and glorifies God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

The thirteenth and last fold, when the flag is completely folded, the stars are uppermost, reminding us of our national motto, in God we trust.

After the flag is completely folded and tucked in, it has the appearance of a cocked hat, ever reminding us of the soldiers who served under General George Washington and the sailors and marines who served under Captain John Paul Jones, and were followed by their comrades and shipmates in the U.S.

Armed Forces, preserving for us the rights, privileges, and freedoms we enjoy today.

At this time I'd like to ask Minister Mark McLean to come up and give the benediction.

Yes.

Peace and blessings, family.

It's been truly a privilege and a pleasure and honor to be here this morning.

It is a wonderful thing for us to come and celebrate the exceptional and greatness of our country.

Although we have many flaws, spots and wrinkle, I still believe what Lincoln declared that we are the last best hope of earth.

And I truly love our country.

And as I was enjoying this ceremony, it made me think of our national motto.

Out of the many, there's one, one people, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

And I hope that this ceremonies like this motivate us and inspire us to pursue with all vigor those ideals.

And so as we conclude this ceremony, this is my prayer.

May the strength of God sustain us.

May the power of God preserve us.

And may the hands of God protect us.

May the ways of God direct us.

And may the love of God go with us, each and every one, as we leave this place, but never his presence.

And oh mighty God, finally, may you bless us, for when you bless us, we're truly blessed.

For when you bless us, we're truly blessed.

Peace and blessings, family.

Um, first and foremost, I want to thank all of you folks for coming here today, taking time out of your day to celebrate flag day and our flag.

Um secondly, I would like to thank the honor guards for taking their time to be a part of this ceremony.

Thank you all.

Um, we have a lot to look forward to this year.

As we head toward our 250th anniversary, let this flag day be more than just a date on the calendar.

Let it be the start of our own chapter in the American story.

I encourage you to fly your flags proudly, talk to your neighbors about our history, and participate in celebrating celebrations coming this July.

We are the keepers of this legacy, and the next 250 years start with us.

Thank you, everyone.

Happy Flag Day.

Uh finally, I would like to present this flag to Chief Andy Sandor for his many years of dedicated service to this country and this city.

Enjoy your retirement, Andy.

God bless you.

Thank you.

And finally, um, we're gonna go outside and we're gonna raise the flag, but may God bless you all, and God bless America.

And this there's some refreshments in the rotunda after we raise the flag outside.

Thank you for coming.