That Ragged Old Flag

I walked through a county courthouse square
On a park bench an old man was sitting there
I said "Your old court house is kinda run down"
He said "naw it'll do for our little town"
I said "Your old flag pole is leaned a little bit,
And that's a ragged old flag you got hanging on it"
He said "Have a seat" and I sat down,
“Is this the first time you've been to our little town?”
I said I think it is
He said…
"I don't like to brag but we're kinda proud of that Ragged Old FlagYou see we got a little hole in that flag there when Washington took it across the Delaware
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans , with Packingham & Jackson tugging at the seams,
and it almost fell at the Alamo beside the Texas flag,
But she waved on though,
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville ,
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill,
There was Robert E. Lee & Beauregard and Bragg,
and the South wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag.On Flanders Fields in World War I,
She got a big hole from a Bertha Gun,
She turned blood red in World War II,
She hung limp & low a time or two,
She was in Korea , Vietnam…
She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam.
She waved from our ships upon the briny foam
& now they've about quit waving back here at home
in her own good land here, She's been abused,
She's been burned, dishonored, denied, an' refused,
And the government for which she stands
has been scandalized throughout the land.
And she's getting thread bare, and she's wearin' thin,
But she's in good shape, for the shape she's in.
Cause she's been though the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more.So we raise her up every morning
And we take her down every night,
We don't let her touch the ground,
And we fold her up right. ...
On second thought –
I *do* like to brag,
Cause I'm mighty proud of that Ragged Old Flag ... "

-Johnny Cash