Lanesboro’s American Legion Post #40 conducted its annual flag retirement ceremony on Monday evening, June 15, at the Bass Pond parking area near downtown Lanesboro. The national organization of the Legion adopted its flag code at its National Flag Conference in 1924, and in 1937, formalized its “Ceremony for Disposal of Unserviceable Flags,” intended to be “a dignified tribute to the flag and its symbolism.”
The ceremony is also intended to give the local Posts surrounding community the opportunity to assure a dignified disposal for an of their own worn-out or tattered flags. People dropping off their flags are assured that they will be “honorably retired and fittingly destroyed.”
The Legion’s website points out that the flag may be “a flimsy bit of printed gauze or a beautiful banner of the finest silk … but the real value is beyond price, a precious symbol” for all of our citizens. The Legion’s annual ceremony assures flag donators that those flags will be respectfully and properly retired.
Flags may be dropped off at any time during the year at the Legion, located at the corner of Parkway Avenue and County Road 8 in downtown Lanesboro.
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