From Many, One

June 14 is Flag Day, and it’s a good time to be thinking about our national symbols. The Rotary Club has placed flying American flags all over Forney and, just as she did for decades, Lady Liberty is standing beneath our American, Texas, and Forney flags, welcoming our tired commuters in from Dallas.

But it’s worth thinking about what that flag represents. We all know the red, white, and blue, and the stars and stripes. The stripes are the thirteen colonies that fought for freedom from Great Britain--but did you know that we had a few flags with extra stripes, as we added states? Francis Scott Key wrote our anthem about a fifteen-star, fifteenstripe flag. Of course, we all know that the fifty stars represent our fifty states, but did you know that we had a 49-star flag between the admission of Alaska and Hawaii? It was used less than a year. And on August 21, 1959, President Eisenhower signed Executive Order 10834 establishing the design of the 50-star flag. This flag was officially raised over Ft. McHenry National Historic Site on July 4, 1960, with Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton presiding.

But the symbols and colors only work in combination. The stars and the stripes only work together as a whole. Red means hardiness and valor; white means purity and innocence; and blue means vigilance, perseverance, and justice. These are the elements that make us ourselves, and they work individually to make a better, more complete union. That’s what the Education Foundation believes about FISD. Our teachers are individuals who come together; our campuses are individuals who come together; our parent groups are individuals who come together. Just like the flag. Just like America.

And the Foundation wants to be one of many stars, another alongside a dozen stripes, helping the helpers help others. Please join us at https://forneyisdfoundation. org/ and help us wave FISD as proudly as we wave the flag.