God Bless America

"That Ragged Old Flag" written by Johnny Cash

Revised - 2003

I walked through a county courthouse square. On a park bench, an old man was sitting there. I said, "Your county courthouse looks kind of run-down." He said, "Nah, it'll do for our little town." I said, "Your old flagpole's leaned a little bit, And that's a ragged old flag you've got hanging on it."

He said, "Have a seat," and I sat down. "Is this the first time you've been to our little town?" I said, "I believe it is." He said, "I don't like to brag, But we're kind of proud of that ragged old flag. You see, we've got a little hole in that flag there from when Washington took it across the Delaware. And it got powder burns the night Francis Scott Key sat watching it, writing, "Oh Say Can You See." And it got a bad rip down in New Orleans with Packingham and Jackson tugging at its seams. She almost fell at the Alamo, next to the Texas flag, but she waved on, though.

She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville, and she got cut again at Shiloh Hill. There were Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg, and the south winds blew hard on that ragged old flag. On Flanders Field, in World War I, she got a big hole from a Bertha gun. She turned blood-red in World War II. She's hung limp and low a time or two. She was in Korea and Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, and she's went wherever she was sent by her Uncle Sam.

She waved from our ships upon the briny foam, but they've about quit waving her back here at home. In her own good land, she's been abused, she's been burned, dishonored, denied, and refused, and the government for which she stands is scandalized throughout the lands. She's looking threadbare and wearing thin, But she's in good shape for the shape she's in. 'Cause she's been through the fire before, and I believe she can take a whole lot more.

So we raise her up every morning and bring her down every night. We don't let her touch the ground, and we fold her up right. On second thought, I do like to brag ... 'Cause I'm mighty proud of that Ragged Old Flag."

As a schoolboy, one of Brother Red Skelton's teachers explained the words and meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance to his class. Skelton later wrote down, and eventually recorded, his recollection of this lecture. It is followed by an observation of his own.

Brother Red Skelton was born on July 18, 1913, in Vincennes, Indiana and passed away on September 24, 1997. Bro. Skelton was raised a Master Mason in Vincennes Lodge No. 1 in Vincennes, Indiana on September 20, 1939, and became a Scottish Rite Mason in the Valley of Evansville where he received the 33rd degree.

Aside from his membership in Vincennes Lodge No. 1, he held membership in both the Scottish and York Rite Bodies. He was the recipient of the General Grand Chapter’s Gold Medal for Distinguished Service in the Arts and Sciences. On September 24, 1969, he was coroneted an Inspector General Honorary Thirty-third Degree in Boston, Massachusetts, by the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite.

Also, he joined the Al Malaikah Shrine Temple on May 16, 1941 in Los Angeles, California, and he received the Grand Lodge Award of Gold from the Grand Lodge of Indiana in 1993.