E PLURIBUS UNUM

By Charlie Daniels

The Charlie Daniels Band
September 15, 2014

The term “E Pluribus Unum” appears on American currency and other official places of prominence around America. It’s a Latin phrase which translated means “out of many, one,” which of course implies that out of the many diverse peoples who make up the population of the United States, we all come together under one banner, or flag to become one when it comes to our commitment of patriotism.

It means that we, who came here from many nations around the earth, while still embracing our heritage and customs pledge allegiance to our adopted nation, to become citizens of this country and accept the responsibilities of defending her and pulling our own weight.

Out of many, one.

To be one people has always been the aim of the forefathers because they knew that a people united can stand against most anything and win the battle, wars, recessions, ideologies. United, we can take on all comers and be victorious in preserving our way of life.

I remember so well that unity during the dark days of the Second World War when Americans refused to even think about losing that war, willing to make what ever sacrifice or pay any personal price it took to win.

There was a "We're all in this thing together" feeling across the land. Men went to war, women interrupted their lives as homemakers and took jobs in defense industries, young kids gathered scrap metal and the whole population bought war bonds to fund the efforts to defeat our formidable enemies.

Well, by the grace of God, a valiant effort by our military and the public's devotion to the war effort, we won that war. A nation, fully committed, who truly believes in the cause they are fighting for and the leaders who lead them is near impossible to best.

On this past 9/11 in Woodruff, South Carolina, several high school students showed up at school with American flags flying from the beds of the pick up trucks they were driving.

The school principal confiscated the flags stating, "It was against district policy to draw too much attention to one's vehicle."

Well, I don't claim to be the swiftest horse in the corral, so can somebody tell me just what in the hell the principal is taking about? Does it seem to anybody besides me that what the boys were drawing attention to was not their vehicles, but to the to the banner that symbolizes our freedom?

Should the flag of the United States be looked upon the same as some offensive decoration or raunchy piece of graffiti, especially on a day that commemorates the most catastrophic terrorist attack ever carried out on American soil, when nearly three thousand innocent people were murdered at the hands Islamic fanatics who would have liked nothing better than to have destroyed our whole nation and all who are in it?

Is our flag not a rallying point for patriots and shouldn't anybody who wants to be able to fly it proudly on their own vehicles, expressing their support for our nation and the men and women who put their lives on the line to keep it free be able to do so?

I was traveling the weekend after 9/11 and all across the nation the marquees at fast food restaurants had patriotic slogans and flags flew everywhere, from radio antennas on cars and even from the back of trailers on eighteen wheelers.

Every retail outlet was sold out of flags; you couldn't buy one anywhere. Some of the newspapers around the country printed a full page American flag so that people could at least have a flag of some kind.

Draw too much attention to one's vehicle by flying an American flag?

No, this is political correctness run amuck, if the school board of that county has a rule against "drawing too much attention to one's vehicle" shouldn't it be altered to exclude the Star-Spangled Banner?

We need to get back to E Pluribus Unum folks.