Today is Flag Day. Washington, D.C., where I live, is rightfully festooned with numerous American flags gently fluttering on a beautiful June summer day in our nation’s capital.

From my office, I can see the American flag atop the United States Capitol, the flags in front of the United States Supreme Court and a number of flags that fly from the U.S. Senate office buildings.

For those of us who have a love affair with America, this is indeed a special day because the red, white and blue signifies an incredibly important principle: We can never give back to our country all that it has given to us.

As I drove to work today, circling around the Lincoln Memorial and whizzing past the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the way up Constitution Avenue to Capitol Hill, I noticed the many flags on the stately marbled federal buildings like the federal reserve, the department of the interior and the National Gallery of Art.

It is quite a testimony to our wonderful country that the Continental Congress passed a resolution in 1777 concerning the design of our flag: 13 alternating red and white stripes replete with the white stars on a field of navy blue. A regal design that lasts through the ages.

It was in 1916 that President Woodrow Wilson rightfully established June 14 as National Flag Day.

One of the great moments of this year was when members of the Phi Kappa Phi Fraternity at the University of North Carolina proudly raised the American flag, supplanting pro-Hamas protesters, while another student at that university nearby waved a small American flag to make sure that old glory was still flying at the stressful moment.

Patriotism thrives among the rising generation of young Americans when they personally witness sobering and dark contrasts to our constitutional republic‘s way of life.

I am a sailor and have sailed the waters of the nearby port of Baltimore Harbor often and there is nothing greater than flying like the wind toward Fort McHenry where Francis Scott Key nearby composed the immortal words of our national anthem – and the fluttering flag at Fort McHenry always brings a tear to the eye.

My favorite flag in Washington, D.C., however ,is not technically in the city itself but rather in nearby Arlington, Virginia.

Within sight of the Lincoln Memorial, Washington memorial, and the Capitol dome is the Marine Corps war Memorial – the beautiful Iwo Jima Memorial – where a group of GIs is depicted raising the flag on Mount Suribachi during the battle of Iwo Jima.

The upward power of liberty which provides the catalyst and energy for that beautiful monument is surely one of the most beautiful in all of our nation.

On my way home today, I will be driving around the Iwo Jima Memorial, and will take time to place my right hand over my heart to remember those who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms here and on otherwise forsaken volcanic islands in the South Pacific.

My favorite story about the flag took place in July 1863 during the battle at Fort Wagner in South Carolina when an ex-slave William Carney grabbed the American flag after the bearer of his regiment was shot and falling.

Despite being injured himself, he proceeded to the Fort, placing the pole into the dirt, and making sure that the flag remained upright until other members of the regiment could arrive.

President Calvin Coolidge, who was born on the Fourth of July, said: “We identify the flag with almost everything we hold dear on earth. It represents our peace and security, our civil and political liberty, our freedom of religious worship, our family, our friends, our home.”

That’s how millions of us feel about the flag and our country, and why today is so important.

Image from Shutterstock.