“YOU ARE THE MAKER OF THE FLAG”
Page 1- Script “YOU ARE THE MAKER OF THE FLAG”
(Lawyer adivce: put copyright notice at start
and at Main Flag Titles, (No harm if at end also)
Cop1right, Year first sold. My name.) Also
put TV notice.
OPENING CREDIT TITLE:
“THIS FILM IS PRESENTED BY FRANCIS RAYMOND LINE AND HELEN E LINE,
WHO HAVE TRAVELED, WORKED, AND STUDIED IN EVERY STATE OF THE UNION IN ORDER TO OBTAIN A COMPREHENSIVE UNDERSTANDING OF AMERICA AND ITS PURPOSES.
Thirteen strips of bunting; a double handful of stars.
Materially, that is the United States flag.States flag.
Thirteen stripes for history,
Fifty stars for geography. Intellectually, that is the flag.
(disolve)
Two centuries of achievement; twenty decades of progress.
Three thousand miles of homes and hopes;
two hundred million heart beats.
Emotionally, that is the flag.
(disolve)
Spiritually, the flag of the United States is every unspoken
and secret concept that has ever stirred in the hearts of
Americans, past and present.
When Americans honor their flag, they are honoring their nation.
In the rich poetry of symbolism, the American flag IS the nation–
its people and places of the present
(disolve)
its people and places of the past,
(disolve)
–
its people and promises for a future with character and strength.
In the capital city by the Potomac, the flag stands for
representative government,
for the democratic process
for justice under law.
(disolve)
.
In the towering city by the Hudson, the flag is the symbol
of initiative,
of inventiveness,
of industry and inspiration.
(disolve)
It is lonely riders at workaday tasks,
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In the city by the GOLDEN GATE the flag declares:
“Americans are bridge-builders”
“Americans have bridged a continent from sea to sea.
.”Americans have bridged the seas themselves, drawing from
every land creating within one nation a homeland
for every race.”
(disolve)
America is called ONE country, but in truth,
America is a hundred countries, inhabited by divergent peoples
yet all united under a single flag.
(disolve)
America is men going down to the sea in the fishing towns
of Maine and Massachusetts.
It is a hushed New England village on a Sunday morning.
It is the golden abundance of autumn in upper New York state,
And the pinch of want in lower New York City.
America is farms. The dairy lands of the midwest;
The Wheat of the Praire Country;
The corn of Illionis and Iowa.
The the kaffir corns of Kansas.
America is the quiet beauty of the South;
The storied romance of Southern rivers,
And the bustle of Southern ports.
America is lonely Navajos on a southwestern reservation as large as four Eastern states.
It is lonely riders at workaday tasks,
Isolated Esquimos in the land of the Midnight Sun,
And laughing Hawaiians, still warmed by sunlight when it is midnight on Cape Cod.
America is crowded streets in crowded cities;
Ten of millions of cars on crowded Highways;
Tens of millions of laborers streaming to work;
Tens of millions of students heading for classes.
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Every citizen of the United States everywhere- whether he realizes it or not- must ultimately face the question:
What is America to me?
What responsibility do I have to the flag?
What do I owe to the nation which the flag symbolizes?
What, to me, is the deeper meaning of allegiance?
(FADE OUT)
The graduation day reflections of one high school senior, who pondered these questions , have meaning for us all.
——–
(Main titles)
“YOU ARE This MAKERS OF THE FLAG”
Written, filmed, and produced by
Francis Raymond Line
and Helen B. Line
Narrated by Marvin Miller and (student voice)
Music supervision by Josef Ziminich
(Student narrator voice speaking)
We seniors had charge of the flag raising on this last day of school. For us, this would be our final flag ceremony before graduation. It was a coincidence that our final day of school should fall on Flag Day.
As Bill and I unfurled the flag, thoughts raced through my mind.
Last day of school. I was glad, yet not glad.
What had school added up to?
What lay beyond those hills the future?
Flag Day. Last day of school. Commencement Day.
Commencement into what, I wondered.
More schooling for some.
Probably the armed forces for others.
Or a job of same kind.
In time we would nearly all have jobs. That’s what it really added up to- making a living.
As the flag reached the top, suddenly a strange thing seemed to happen.
Glaring sun.
Thoughts of Coamencement. Flag Day.
A voice almost seemed to be coming from the flag itself
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“HELLO THERE, YOU PEOPLE WHO WILL GO OUT TO MAKE THE FLAG.”
Was this a dream? I felt myself wanting to reply: “We’re not going to make the flag. We’re just going to make a living. The flag was made years ago. George Washington did that.”
From up there that voice seemed to be coming again- as though the flag were speaking directly to us:
(All the remaining commentary is spoken by a male voice who represents the voice of the
flag. Quotations marks are omitted from here on)
(Flag speaking:)You are right. In a way, George Washington did HELP to make me. He helped establish the pattern You are of what I stand for.
But you are helping to make me too,
You and everyone in your school. And everyday of your lives, you will be helping to establish the pattern of what I stand for.
Martha plans to be a teacher.
Tom is considering law- perhaps going into politics.
Jack hopes to get into television production.
And Don is already working part time on the local newspaper.
Each one of you will be going out to make a living.
But you will also be going out to make the flag- to shape
America- to decide what I stand for.
YOU are the makers of the flag, just as EVERY American
has been, from the time of Washington until now.
I want to take you on a journey, so that you will understand
what I mean– a journey across both space and time,
a journey across America and into history.
( wavy dissolve )
Independence Hall in Philadelphia is undergoing repairs;
That is symbolic.(Cherished buildings, like cherished
institutions; must always be worked on if they are to be preserved
.
In Philadelphia, on June 14, 1777, I was officially born.
The Continental Congress, in a one-sentence declaration,
resolved that the flag of the United States should consist
of 13 stars and 13 stripes.
Traditionally, the first flag has a circle of stars. Actually
the stars were often arranged in varying designs.
Rage 5 – YOU ARE THE MAKERS OF THE FLAG
With the admission to statehood of Vermont and Kentucky, the number of stripes, as well as the number of stars, was increased to fifteen.
It was a flag of fifteen stripes and stars that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor on the night of September 13,1814.
I fly today at the identical spot over which that flag waved when it was illumined by the Rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, from the British fleet.
I fly today at the identical spot over which that flag It was a flag of fifteen stripes and stars that flew over Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor on the night of Sept 13, 1814
Francis Scott Key, at dawn, saw the flag still streaming gallently above the ramparts of the Fort, and wrote the song that has become our National Anthem.
The nationcommenced its expansion.
–
Territory surrounding the Great-Lakes was carved into states.
Areas of the Deep South were admitted as states into the Union
In 1818, a new Flag Act returned the number of stripes to thirteen, stipulating that one new star be added for each new state.
When Maine joined the Union in 1820, the nation reached its eastern limits.
With the admission of California in 1850, and Oregon in 1859 1859, the United States stretched from sea to sea,
1861 My family of stars Union grown to 33 when unity was threatened by CIVIL WAR.
More than a third of the states seceded, but their stars never left the American flag.
Never once did Abraham Lincoln concede that the seceding tates had departed the Union.
Lincoln said: “This Government must be preserved in spite of the acts of any man or set of men.It is worthy of your every effort.”
The Union was save and its separate entities welded by fire into one indivisible nation.
FADE OUT
FADE IN
In the half century following war between the states twelve stars were added to my field of blue-
stars standing for states whitch were large with splendor.
Of these twelve, Montana bears the very name of ‘mountian’ and typified the mo9untain west which came into the Union.
Out of the mountains of Montana was to be created Glacier National Park.
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From Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho would come Yellowstone Park.
With Colorado’s admission to the Union, came the very heart
of the Rockies.
Utah bequeathed a Pandora’s Box of wonders-
Bryce;
The Arches were to become Arches National Monument,
Washington State brought into the Union the middle Columbia River,
where Grand Coulee Dam would be built- the Grand Coulee, symbolizing
the greatest and finest in America— achievement,
industry, power, service and leadership, beauty.
Oklahoma brought a special heritage of the American Indian.
With the admission of New Mexico and Arizona in 1912, the
Continental United States was complete.
The conquest of America was drawing to a close.
The nation had been moulded into a mighty land of freedom,
through the aid of peoples from many distant shores.
From the Brittish Isles came English, Irish, Welsh and Scotch( settling the eastern seaboard and pushing westward)
Germans settled in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and St. Louis.
Scandinavians came to the midwest.
Ukranians settled in the Northwest.
The Spanish inhabited the Southwest.
And in every city and town (Italians and Poles., and French and Greeks and people from the Orient) men and women of every nationality became good Americans, all;
As America has welcomed all peoples from overseas INTO our land of freedom, so she is faces outward sharing with others across the oceans, as they endeavor to achieve in their own lands, freedom and dignity for themselves.
The raised torch of freedom (Statue of Liberty) lights another path, America is facing outward into space- adding a fourth and new dimensionto the nation’s life.
Except during months of the Spanish American War, I had flown in peace over an
expanding America.
Then came two World Wars., and a conflict in Korea.
7 – YOU ARE THE MAKERS OF THE FLAG (CORRECTED SHEET)
48 stars formed my field of blue when, in World War II,
five marines raised me in battle on Mt. Suribachi in Iwo Jima.
Each morning, across the Potomac from Washington, men of the Marine Corps hoist me proudly to the breeze above the Suribachi statue.
I stand for ALL of the marines, all of the solders and sailors and airmen, all of the men and women in every age, who have fougnt and served to keep me flying.
Each evening, at the Suribachi Memorial, I am reverently lowered
(OVER)
It is not hard to realize that the men who have fought for me in battle from the
CoIoniaI Wars to our latest struggle, have helped to make the flag and shape America.
It is less easy, yet more important, to understand that all Americans, by their every day work and activities, are determining what I stand for.
That is true for men and women who work in factories in Michigan and Illinois.
It is true for steel workers in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
It is true for street workers in Chicago,
for construction workers in Georgia,
for Reclamation workers in the west.
Nurses and doctors in our hospitals are helping to keep America strong.
Police and firemen in jobs of danger are helping to keep America safe.
Garbage collectors in our cities are helping to keep America clean.
Inventors and scientists are keeping American life challenging and ever new;
Architects, artists, musicians, writers, are shaping the cultural life of the nation;
Astronauts are carrying America’s challenge into space.
(The are citizens of a great nation.)
The men and women throughout the rural United States are not farm workers merely; they are partners in building America. They have definite obligations to be well-informed, intelligent citizens.
The cowboys working in lonely areas of a once-isolated west, are no longer detached from the main stream of American life. They are active partners in shaping a modern America of which
the flag is the symbol.
The people who stream to work each morning in our cities have responsibilities far beyond their individual jobs. They must be able to vote intelligently. In their group activities,they must build up, rather than to tear down America. In their organizations, they may exert leadership which is truly ijntelligent.
The flag, as a symbol of America, is being made anew every day by every citizen of this land.
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By the executives responsible for the corporations and busineses;
By larbor leaders responsible for the leadership of organized labor;
By Leachers, putting into their work the extra devotion that inspires students;
By mothers, shaping the very lives of the citizens of the future;
By workers in the communications industries, shaping the thoughts and actions of the citizens of today;
By spiritual leaders, building and preserving values for a nation which was founded on spiritual principles, a nation which, in the language of the Pledge of Allegiance, exists “under. God.”
For all of these makers of the flag, there are battles to few fought in civilian life which are just as stern as the battles of war. There is a battle against racial prejudice.
Against racketeering and gangsterism,
Against alcoholism,
Agaisnt narcotics.
There are the problems the increasing dicorce,
affecting the lives and futures of tens of thousands of children
There are the problems of juvenile delinquency, affecting the future of the nation.
There is the problem of gross dishonesty,
in government.
in business,
in labor unions,
in the classroom.
I fly over an America where private enterprise and the profit system are integral parts of a nation’s life.
But profit must be defined in terms far more inclusive
than the cash register; must be defined in terms of benefit
to employer, employee, consumer, and America as a whole.
There are comercial enterpries where private enterprises is not true to its trust, and America is weakened.
There are labor leaders who think selfishly and not in terms of the common good.
There are politicians who put their own interests far above those of their country.
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There are individuals who tear down rather than build up, America; who harm, rather than help, their country.
Only because most people are diligent, reliable, and honest, do I remain a symbol of integrity.
Making the flag consists largely in commonplace devotion to duty, unsung acts of service, simple integrity and honesty.
True patriotism hononsists not in waving th flag frantically, but in honoring it intelligently, in every act of living.
Martha, as a future teacher, aswell as a future mother, can instill that purpose into the nation’s youth.
True patriotism consist not in shouting but in serving.
Tom, as a future lawyer or politician, can benefit America by the qualty of his leadership.
True patriotism consists, not in trying to divide, but in endevoring to unify, America.
Every citizen can help to achieve such a goal.
The ballot box, more certainly than the soap box, forms
the true foundation of the nation, and using the ballot box is both a privilege and a duty, for adults today and adults tomorrow.
As part of your school program, you young men and women
have this day raised the flag and honoredit. You must
honor it with your lives every day that you live.
You are the Makers of the Flag.
(End Title)