Feb 20, 2014 1 min read

While watching the U.S. beat Russia in hockey Saturday morning, I was musing about the number of international flags represented at the Olympics.

Indeed, how many of these flags are recognized by today’s grade school students? Fifty? Twenty-five? Ten?, Two? None? Even our own flag?

You may say, “So what?” But flags signify a nation’s sovereignty and the blood that was spilled in its defense. There was a time when geography was still part of the curriculum as a distinct subject. Times change, do they not?

The day is rapidly approaching when students will have only one flag to worry about. It is identified by a blue background, with a world map centered among two olive branches – the flag of the United Nations.

Bill Brooks

Waynesburg