I walked through a county courthouse square.
On a park bench an old man was sitting there.
I said, “Your old courthouse is kind of run down.”
He said, “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 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 kind of proud of that ragged old flag.
“You see, we got a little hole in that flag there
when Washington took it across the Delaware
and it powder burned the night Francis Scott Key
sat up watching it, writing “Oh Say Can you See.”
It got a little rip in New Orleans
with Packingham and Jackson pulling at its seams.
And it almost fell at the Alamo
beside the Texas flag, she waved on though.
It got cut with a sword at ChancellorsVille
and it cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard and Bragg.
The south wind blew hard on that ragged old flag.
On Flanders field in World War One,
She got a big hole from a Bertha Gun.
She turned blood red in World War Two,
She hung limp and low by the time it was through.
She was in Korea and Viet Nam.
She went where she was sent by her Uncle Sam;
she waved from our ships upon the briny foam.
And now they’ve about quit waving her at home.
In her own good land she’s been abused,
she’s burned, dishonored, denied, and refused.
And now the Government for which she stands
is scandalized through out our land.
She’s getting threadbare and she’s wearing thin,
but she’s in good shape for the shape she's in.
Cause she’s been through the fire before,
and I believe she can take a whole lot more.
So we raise here up every morning bring her down slow 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, March 1974
