Someone put in a lot of hard work and research to devise the flag display used at President Bush’s inaugural ceremony. But their hard work went unnoticed by the pundits and media. I quickly noticed the display and waited for some of the commentators to discuss its significance. I even e-mailed a suggestion to Fox News pointing out the significance, but I was apparently ignored.

Hanging between giant white columns of the Capital, over and behind the inaugural stand were five U.S. flags. The center flag was the current flag with fifty stars, one for each state. On either side of the modern flag were two flags with 34 stars. This banner is known as the Ft. Sumter flag, the Union flag that flew when the War Between the States began. On the outside of the display were two Betsy Ross flags. This flag was the original stars and stripes. It contained 13 stars in a circle, representing the 13 original states that made up the Union.

I am not sure what the people who designed this display had in mind other than to emphasize the historical nature of the event. However, I have my own interpretation of its meaning.

The original flag with 13 stars and 13 stripes was designed to emphasize the nature of the new nation as a confederation of sovereign states. Each star and each stripe represented a state. This flag proclaimed that each state should be recognized as a separate government that has assigned some of its powers to the central government for the purpose of unity.

The Fort Sumter flag singled the political victory of the radical Republicans, and their intent to overthrow the concept of state sovereignty and build an all-powerful central government. Their purpose was to use the government to benefit powerful Northern economic interests.

Now, under the current flag, President Bush pledges to start returning power from the federal government to the states and the people by encouraging private ownership of the nation’s resources. We have been hearing similar promises every year since Reagan became president. But so far, it has been all talk and little progress.

Now, I am quite sure the planners did not realize what they had done with the rest of the display. On the side of the building, on either side of the flags, they hung huge banners that consisted of a blue star-filled field on top and three bars below; two red bars and one white. These banners very closely resemble the first national flag of the Confederate States of America, the Stars and Bars.

Many people, especially in the South, argue that these banners represent the effort to preserve the American Revolution. Many of them continue to fly the stars and bars, the battle flag and other Confederate flags as a mark of their defiance of the all-powerful central government. These people want nothing more than to be left alone. They want to conduct their lives as they see fit. They do not want government controlling everything they do.

In his speech, President Bush referred frequently to freedom and liberty.

The flag display behind him clearly symbolized the war for liberty, the war that took so much of our liberty away, and the desire of most Americans to regain the liberty for which their ancestors sacrificed their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

Copyright 2005 by Frank Gillispie

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Frankly Speaking by Frank Gillispie, this item was published with permission of the author. Published January 26, 2005 in the Madison County Journal - www.mainstreetnews.com. His website can be accessed at frankgillispie.tripod.com/gillispie/.