Sunday June 14, 2009 is Flag Day- a day to fly the country's flag, but it's not any State or Federal holiday.
I was checking around to see what kind of information that there was and for local items, it was not much. I came across this item in the local blog, "The Eastsider," as a June 12, 2009 posting, "Celebrate Flag Day with 962 Other Patriots," under the "School Yard" tab, http://theeastsiderlaschools.blogspot.com/2009/06/celebrate-flag-day-with-962-other.html
This was sort of a surprise to me for a couple of reasons. The first one being that I usually find little attention given to certain types of commemorative dates, like National Police Week this year, briefly noted here as http://www.nleomf.com/NPW2009/ . Especially on the little-noticed side were the patriotic type days that I find on commonly on the calendar and that appear to be observed only sporadically, especially this simply stated one, Flag Day, June 14th.
Next item to surprise me was the fact that this was in an LAUSD school. Generally, LAUSD IS where I usually find very little patriotism toward things that are U.S.-oriented, that is, attention more likely is found to be focused on non-U.S. things. Apparently an "unintended consequence" in the LAUSD's quest, or, more aptly, their stumbling over themselves, to address "diversity" in such a way it really results in promoting and maintaining "separatism," So to see this event and the particular fact that the United States flag that was one flown over the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., is the one to be raised on Monday, was a special news item to me, as well as the fact that each student would be getting their own flag. I think more schools should be as concerned as this one is.
Well, the whole thing is happening at the Echo Park elementary school, Betty Plascencia Elementary School, named after one person that was very dedicated to the students, school and achievement. Betty Plasencia Elementary School was formerly Cortez St. School and one of the older schools in the LAUSD, on Temple St., by Angelino Heights and the restored old Victorian-style homes of old Los Angeles.
Flag Day is actually on Sunday, but the next school day is Monday and that will be their opportunity for observance of the day. One of the things missing from schools more now than before is the familiarity with our own country's special days and the reason for their significance, part of the history void in their education, and that seems addressed at Betty Plascencia Elementary in this case.
Here is a link that lists a lot more days for flag display http://www.flagfree.com/datodifl.html , many more than I knew of, and this is covered by LAUSD automatically when they raise flags at their school daily anyway- BUT they do not seem to be aware of May 15's half-staff requirement for Peace Officer's Memorial Day, and I was not aware of the National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day half-staff practice on December 7th.
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