Perry’s Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Lodge 407 and Perry’s Boy Scouts of America Troop 127 staged a Flag Day ceremony Saturday afternoon at the John Davis Memorial Plaza in downtown Perry.
About a dozen attendees maintained a respectful silence while the Elks performed their ceremonial duties, including a benediction and a series of exultations of the U.S. national flag.
A history of the flag’s development was read aloud by Elk Pat Tierney of Perry, with members of Boy Scout Troop 127 bearing the examples of the national colors in turn and placing them in a pedestal.
Elk John Taylor of Perry read a capsule version of the founding and expansion of what became the United States: “While the Old World groveled in abject homage to the hearsay of the divine right of kings, a new constellation appeared in the western skies, the Stars and Stripes, symbolizing the divine rights for all today: liberty, happiness and peace under endowment by their creator.”
“To what man or woman is given words adequate to tell the story of the building of this nation?” Taylor asked. He continued: “That immortal story is written in blood and sweat, in heroic deeds and unremitting toil, in clearing primeval forests and in planting the vast prairies where once the coyote and buffalo roamed. Onward swept the nation, spanning wide rivers, leaping vast mountain ranges, leaving its path through village and farm, factory and city, till at last this great nation stood astride the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific.”
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