I was born on June 14, 1777 in Philadelphia.
There, the Continental Congress adopted my stars and stripes as the national flag.
My thirteen stipes alternating red and white, with a union of thirteen white stars in a field of blue, represented a new constellation, a new nation dedicated to the personal and religious liberty of mankind.
Today, fifty stars signal from my union, one for each of the fifty sovereign states in the greatest constitutional republic the world has ever known.
I represent these eternal principles: liberty, justice and humanity.
I embody American freedom: freedom of speech, religion, assembly, the press, and the sanctity of the home.
I am as old as my nation.
I am a living symbol of my nation's law... the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights.
I voice the philosophy of Abraham Lincoln ...
"A government of the people, by the people, for the people."
Americans...
I am the sacred emblem of your country.
I symbolize your birthright, your heritage of liberty purchased with blood and sorrow.
I am your title deed of freedom, which is yours to enjoy and hold in trust for posterity. As you see me silhouetted against the peaceful skies of my country, remind yourself that I am the flag of YOUR country, that I stand for what YOU are...
No more...No less.
Guard me well, lest your freedom perish from the earth.
Dedicate your lives to those principles for which I stand...
"One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
I was created in freedom.
I made my first appearance in a battle for human liberty.
God grant that I may spend eternity in my "land of the free and the home of the brave"... and that I shall forever be known as "Old Glory" the flag of the United States of America...