Seeing the stars clearly

When you look at the American flag this Flag Day, will you see stars? If so, you may not be grasping the full meaning of the flag. Think deeply and a new constellation will come into view.

The founding president of the National Flag Foundation can't recall if he flew 27 or 28 World War II bombing missions over Germany. Yet George Cahill vividly remembers defending himself with a 50-caliber machine gun while looking Luftwaffe pilots in the eyes as they tried to shoot him out of his bombardier seat in the Plexiglas nosecone of a B-17 "Flying Fortress." Following his military discharge, Cahill resumed his college studies and finished a degree at Purdue University. He went on to hold several executive positions with the Boy Scouts of America, co-founded the National Flag Foundation, and spent his career promoting the ideals represented by the "new constellation."

"The first gift our founders gave us was the Declaration of Independence and the second, 10 years before the Constitution, was the flag," the 85-year-old patriot told me. "These men knew the importance of symbols." We celebrate Flag Day today because the members of the Second Continental Congress passed the first Flag Act on June 14, 1777, stating, "Resolved, That the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation."

What did the legislators of the young nation at war mean by the words "a new constellation?" The last three words of the Flag Act are superfluous . . . or are they? "They didn't just gratuitously add these three words," Mr. Cahill said. "When they said something, they meant something."

When you look at the stars of the American flag, what do you think of? Do you see stars made of white thread? Do you think about the 50 states they represent, or do you think in terms of "a new constellation?" Think in astronomical terms when you view our flag today. If George Cahill is right, our founders were sending a message with the tersely worded metaphor tucked at the end of their little piece of legislation.

Who placed the stars and constellations in the sky? "And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be signs for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.' And it was so" (Genesis 1:14-15).

Were the founders telling us that they believed there was a connection between this new form of government, a democratic republic, and the Creator? George Cahill thinks so.

"There's a divine element present in our government that had only been glimpsed by a few geniuses like Socrates until the time of the founding," he said. "This rare glimpse was the recognition that the Creator who gave man life also gave him liberty . . . and that government had nothing to do with the granting of liberty. The role of government, these geniuses realized, was to protect this liberty. God had given a glimpse to geniuses over the centuries, but nobody had ever taken pen and ink and codified it as a cardinal principle until our founders did it in the Declaration of Independence. And now these founders were representing it in a symbol, reaching for the stars in heaven and putting them on a flag. Those words 'a new constellation' must have meaning."

When you look at an American flag today, will you see a new constellation? George Cahill will. He knew the significance of what he was defending while exposed in the nosecone of a B-17. He was willing to give his life for the ideals represented by his flag and he devoted his entire career to promoting this special relationship between, as he says, "man to government, government to man and both to God."