Flag Day 2009

Today is Flag Day.

…commemorates the adoption of the flag of the United States.

In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day; in August 1949, National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress.

A flag I was unaware of until today is –the ‘Flag of Earth,’ created by James Cadle in 1970.

The Flag of Earth flies at most SETI locations around the world. It symbolizes the fact that our search is carried out on behalf of humankind as a whole. The individual people, organizations, and nations involved are immaterial, since any communication with extraterrestrial intelligence will belong to all of humanity, and represent Earth’s entry into the Galactic community.

This flag is laid out thusly: a circle of yellow, inhabiting  2/3rds of the left-hand side, representing the Sun or Sol is partially obscured by a solid blue circle centered in the middle of a black background representing the Earth, and a smaller white circle in the lower right-hand corner of the flag representing  Luna or the Moon.

Citizens of Earth!

In 1982 Ronald Reagan introduced himself in a speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations as “…both a citizen of the United States and of the world.” If we should considers ourselves citizens of Earth or the world as then President Regan did, then why don’t his acolytes (The Grinch and El RushboET all) follow the words of the man they so revere?

“I speak today as both a citizen of the United States and of the world.”  –Ronald Wilson Reagan to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session Devoted to Disarmament
June 17, 1982

Hey, Newt! Ya forgot Iran.

“Let me be clear. I am not a citizen of the world. I think the entire concept is intellectual nonsense and stunningly dangerous. There is no world sovereignty. There is no world system of law. There is in fact no circumstance under which I would like to be a citizen of North Korea, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Cuba, or Russia. I am a citizen — I am a citizen of the United States of America.” –Newt Gingrich June 8, 2009

There’s only one Earth –Terra Firma, and (74 percent of which is covered by water) we all gotta learn ta live on it together, in peace, or the species formerly known as Homosapien will vanish from this world.

Greetings from Earth: where the males don’t wear no pants and the women don’t wear no tops.

Peace, brothers and sisters, citizens –of the world.

see also: Flag Day, The Flag of Earth, Invitation to ETI, SETI League

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