How Will You Celebrate June 14?

Saturday, June 14, will be a busy day. That day here in the U.S. has long been celebrated as Flag Day. It is also the anniversary of the U.S. Army. Additionally, June 14 is President Trump’s 79^th birthday, and his planned military parade in Washington, D.C. However, many plan to celebrate Saturday as No Kings Day. 

Flag Day in the U.S. has long been celebrated on June 14. The first official national flag was formally approved by the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777. Then in 1861, Flag Day was initially proposed to rally support for the Union side of the American Civil War.

Although President Wilson issued a proclamation in 1916 that designated June 14 as Flag Day, it was not until August 1949 that Congress officially established “National Flag Day” on that date. But even now, it is not an official federal holiday.

Two years before the approval of the flag, the United States Army was founded on June 14. Thus, this year will be the 250^th anniversary of the Army. (Since there was not yet a nation called the United States in 1775, it was first called the Continental Army.)

The current website of the U.S. Army says, “Since its official establishment, June 14, 1775 — more than a year before the Declaration of Independence — the U.S. Army has played a vital role in the growth and development of the American nation.”

President Trump was born on June 14, 1946, so this year his 79^th birthday will be on Flag Day. As has been widely covered in the news media, the POTUS has planned a huge military parade in Washington, D.C. for that day, partly to commemorate the Army.

During his first term, Trump sought to have a big military parade. Those plans, however, were shelved because of the projected cost and concerns that some of the military vehicles, particularly tracked vehicles like tanks, would likely significantly damage D.C. streets and necessitate expensive repairs.

But now by linking Flag Day, the milestone anniversary of the Army, and his birthday, the POTUS has planned an extensive parade on the evening of June 14. At 6:30 p.m., the parade will begin near the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery before crossing into D.C.

The planned parade will feature 150 military vehicles, 6,600 soldiers, and 50 aircraft to fly overhead. U.S. Army tanks, Bradley fighting vehicles, Paladin howitzers, and other military equipment from Texas arrived by train in the nation’s capital last Saturday to take part in the massive parade.

There will also be a multitude of protest marches on June 14. Most of the marches are linked to Indivisible, the anti-Trump organization initiated in 2016 as a reaction to the election of Trump as the 45^th POTUS.

“No Kings” is the theme of the more than 1,550 protest marches that are planned for every major city except for Washington D.C.* (There are at least five separate marches planned for the greater Kansas City area.)

The No Kings protest marches are in direct response to what organizers view as Trump’s military parade being “straight out of the authoritarian playbook.” It can easily be seen in the POTUS’s attempt to solidify his image as a “strongman” and, thus, clearly contrary to democratic values.**

All of these protest marches have great symbolic significance: the timing was deliberately chosen, of course, to counter the military parade on Flag Day / Trump’s birthday. The flag doesn’t belong to him. It belongs to all U.S. citizens and shouldn’t be co-opted by an authoritarian President’s parade.

It cannot be emphasized too strongly, though, how important it will be for all of the protest marches to be completely non-violent. If violence should break out anywhere, that would likely invoke federal troops deployed to quell such violence as was done in Los Angeles over this past weekend.

Personally, through the years, I have taken part in a few protest marches both in Japan and here in the U.S. Since I am now an old man, however, I don’t have the energy/stamina to participate in a local No Kings march on Saturday.

But if you have the time, interest, and energy to do so, I strongly encourage you to celebrate June 14 by taking part in one of the protest marches on that day.

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  * The NoKings.org website (see here) gives the reason for there being no protest march in the nation’s capital on the 14^th.  

** According to Wikipedia, “In politics, a strongman is a type of authoritarian political leader—civilian or military—who exerts control through military enforcement and has, or has claimed to have, strong popular support. Strongmen typically claim to have widespread popular support, portray themselves as the only one capable of solving the country's problems, and espouse a disdain for liberalism and democracy.” Doesn’t that sound a lot like Trump?!