Commentary
In 1974, Johnny Cash wrote and released “Ragged Old Flag.” In that hit song, a first-time visitor to a small town meets an old man sitting by the courthouse and comments on the tattered flag hanging from a tilted pole on the lawn. The old man invites the stranger to sit down and then tells of the battles and wars over which that flag has flown, from American independence to the Alamo, from Chancellorsville and Shiloh to Korea and Vietnam. Near the end of the song, the old man says:
