Faded Red, White And Blue: Turn In Your Tattered Flag

What can be more patriotic that flying the American flag at a home of business? But what happens when that flag becomes tattered and beaten up over time so that the red, white and blue is just plain worn out?

By law, American flags can't just be thrown away. However, they also should not be flown if they are warn out. The answer: Flags should be "retired."

Clarkstown Town Clerk Justin Sweet said that his office is continuing a free service in which old American flags are collected at Town Hall for proper disposal. On June 14, Flag Day, Sweet said his office will present worn flags to the William E. DeBevoise Jr. American Legion Post 1682 in New City for proper retirement.

The flags will be retired at a ceremony held at the post just off Route 304 on Flag Day. Sweet said that anyone who has a worn flag and wishes to insure its proper disposal should deliver the flag to the Clarkstown Town Clerk’s Office, 10 Maple Avenue, New City.

“Our flag is the most recognizable symbol of this great nation and deserving of an appropriate level of respect," Sweet said. "I encourage anyone who has a worn flag that they wish to dispose of to drop it off at my office so that it may be retired in an appropriate manner.”

The origin of Flag Day in the United States started with a young schoolteacher named Bernard J. Cigrand in 1885. After many years of effort on the part of Cigrand to bring about a national day of recognition for our flag, President Wilson issued a proclamation in 1916 announcing a national observance of Flag Day on June 14th.

The day was finally memorialized as National Flag Day by an act of Congress and signed into law by President Truman in 1949.