The Town Raises the Flag
Kennewick gathers to unfurl the national colors amid the fervor of a nation entering the Great War.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
As Mr. Pratt concluded the band struck up 'The Star-Spangled Banner,' the flag was unfurled and slowly raised to the top of the pole by S. M. Henderson and A. C. Hart, as representatives of the local post G.A.R., while every man, woman and child in the audience stood at attention and sang the national anthem. 'We have raised the fairest flag the sun shines upon,' said Rev. K. S. Tontz. He noted that while flags are just cloth, they represent the greatness of the people. M. M. Moulton won the applause of the crowd when he declared it was our duty to carry our flag to the battlefields of Europe to plant it alongside the Union Jack and the Tri-Color in the name of democracy. The ceremonies were brought to a close by the audience giving three rousing cheers for the Stars and Stripes, the cheering being led by Mayor Sherek.
“A flag is what the people make it.”
This display of intense wartime patriotism in 1917 Kennewick reflects how civic identity is often forged or reinforced during periods of national crisis. The rhetoric of 'making the flag' through our own actions echoes the ongoing, often contentious, civic debates over what American values look like in modern public spaces.
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