IN THE EARLY 1890S, A SMALL GROUP OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS SETTLED AT A PLACE THEY CALLED MORMON BEND IN WYOMING'S BIG HORN BASIN. LATER, THE SETTLERS RELOCATED NEARBY AT A PLACE THEY NAMED BURLINGTON.
THE SETTLERS WORKED HARD TO ESTABLISH HOMES. THE CENTER OF THE COMMUNITY WAS A MEETINGHOUSE BUILT OF LOGS HEWED IN THE MOUNTAINS AND BROUGHT DOWN TO THE SETTLEMENT.In 1897, amid much hard work, they decided to celebrate America's Independence Day. As July 4 approached that year and preparations were made for the celebration, the settlers discovered they lacked an important item: There was not an American flag to be found anywhere in the community. The flag, they felt, was essential for a proper celebration.
Settlers of frontiers - and Mormon settlers of the American frontier in particular - were an industrious lot, not easily deterred from their goals. When they didn't have one of life's necessities in their possession, they improvised and created with their own hands what they needed. That's what some of Burlington's settlers decided they would do when it was suggested that since they could not purchase or borrow a flag they would make their own.
A bed sheet was donated to be used for the white stripes and stars. But no one in the settlement had any red or any blue fabric to complete the flag. It was then that Joseph Christopherson, one of the settlement's leaders, made his own journey into Wyoming's history as he rode 30 miles to another settlement to purchase the blue and red fabrics. After he returned, Nora and Ella Rilley sewed a flag for Burlington's Independence Day festivities.
Burlington's settlers made such extra-mile efforts that year because the flag meant something to them. It was more than red and white stripes, and more than white stars on a field of blue. It was a symbol of the nation they loved. The hand-sewn flag that waved in the Wyoming breeze that day represented the sacrifices made by predecessors who fought in a new land to establish and preserve freedom. It was the emblem of a nation that offered untold freedom and opportunities.
Scenes equally poignant could have unfolded in any free land. Patriotism really knows no national boundaries. Patriotism is defined as "devoted love, support, and defense of one's country; national loyalty." A patriot is "a person who loves, supports, and defends his country and its interest." In Latin, the root word is patriota, which means "fellow countryman." In Greek, the root is patrio, which means "of one's fathers." (The Random House College Dictionary, revised edition, 1975.)
That sons and daughters of various nations throughout history have been at odds with each other, and have gone to war to hurt, maim and kill their "enemies" is a sad commentary in view of the fact that we all owe allegiance to the same source. We are really fellow patriots. If we go back in our histories far enough, mapping out our pedigree charts through the ages, we will see that we are of the same family, from the same land of origin. We might have different colors of skin, speak different languages, practice widely varying traditions and, at different times of the year, salute flags of diverse colors and designs.
But these experiences do not obliterate the fact that we are all members of Adam and Eve's extended family. We all have the same Creator. No matter by which name He is called, or by which form He is perceived in the eyes of adherents of various religions, or that He is regarded with indifference by agnostics and rejected by atheists, this fact remains: He is our Heavenly Father.
And we are His children. Some live in oppression, having not known freedom or having had it taken from them by unjust and wicked individuals and governments that certainly are the creations of the adversary. We mourn that some of Heavenly Father's children are fettered, unable to go about the daily activities that those of us who feel freedom's gentle caress too often take for granted. What a blessing it is to worship, to speak what is in our hearts and minds, to go where our desires and initiatives might take us.
Americans celebrate the birth of their nation on the Fourth of July. Citizens of other free lands hold their celebrations on different dates, but everyone's feelings of gratitude certainly must be similar. As we celebrate individually or collectively, as we pause to admire our banners of freedom, let us express thanks to the Author of all liberty and pray that some day flags of freedom will be hoisted everywhere.
