No one takes a knee at Washington State Patriotic Day in Tacoma
There was no shortage of American flags inside the Stadium High School gymnasium in Tacoma on Saturday.
“This symbol has been an amazing rallying point for our nation,” Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier said.
He and several hundred others were observing Washington State Patriotic Day. The annual event featured a massing of the colors, music and awards.
The event came one day after George Washington’s 287th birthday.
The event’s highlight, a parade of flags, saw representatives of 79 different organizations march into the gymnasium. They ranged from a Stryker brigade at Joint Base Lewis-McChord to the Mary Ball chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to Cub Scout Pack 412 of Lakewood to an American Legion post in Yelm.
Navy veteran Dammeier was the event’s guest speaker.
“A piece of colored cloth and a wooden stick,” Dammeier began, noting the dozens of flags around the gymnasium Saturday afternoon. “Nobody would possibly give their life for that.
“But put together properly, it becomes something much more,” he continued. “It becomes a symbol, the symbol of our nation, the symbol of who we are, the sacrifices that have been made, the things we’ve overcome and the challenge to who we should be in the future.”
Dammeier noted it was 74 years to the day when U.S. Marines raised the American flag on the Pacific island of Iwo Jima during World War II. Photographer Joe Rosenthal captured the iconic moment.
The diversity of the young people carrying the flags into Saturday’s event was noted.
“We are a diverse nation, always have been,” Dammeier said. “Yet when anybody threatens us, we line up and lock arms.”
He noted that young Japanese-American men went on to become some of the most highly decorated soldiers in World War II while their family members were interned in U.S. concentration camps.
“One of the times when our nation failed to live up to our principals,” he said.
Dammeier said that the nation is in a period of divisiveness with a rise in racism.
He noted that some have burned the U.S. flag in protest and, more recently, professional football players have kneeled during the playing of the national anthem.
Dammeier said he disagreed with the methods they used to protest but defended their right to do so.
“I will respect their ability (to protest),” he said. “That’s what we fight for. That’s who we are. That’s the principal behind our nation.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2019 at 5:11 PM.
