Air Force Featured Stories

What's your favorite color?

  • Published
  • By Sementha Mathews
  • 347th Wing Public Affairs
"Mommy, what's your favorite color?" asked my 8-year-old daughter, Noelani, while coloring another picture to add to the collage on my kitchen cabinets.

"I don't have a favorite ... I like them all" is my usual reply since she began asking me a thousand times ago. Usually, she anticipates my answer and just smiles an "I thought you'd say that" smile.

Today, she placed her crayon down for a moment, shocked that I had finally changed my mind.

"Red, white and blue," I responded this time. "Yes, I believe that's my favorite color."

"But that's three colors, Mommy," she said. Technically, she was right. But how can you separate one from the others?

Since the Continental Congress' decision on June 14, 1777, the colors have proudly been those of our beloved American flag. Although no one knows with absolute certainty, many historians believe Congressman Francis Hopkinson actually designed the flag, and Betsy Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, sewed the first one together.

Nevertheless, the "Old Red, White and Blue" has become a proud symbol of this great nation.

The symbolic colors of the flag were explained in a book published by the House of Representatives in 1989 entitled "Our Flag."

White signifies purity and innocence; red signifies hardiness and valor; and blue signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice.

Francis Scott Key, whose words gave birth to "The Star-Spangled Banner," our national anthem, is said to have penned his famous words while witnessing the British attack on Fort McHenry, Md., during the War of 1812, and the flag flying victoriously in the distance. The conclusion of the third verse states, "And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave, o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave."

Who could not adore those colors -- red, white and blue? Though separate in their boldness of hue, they unite in a pattern of stars and stripes universally known for this country and its people. It's the color of freedom. It's the color of bravery. It's the color of victory.

I love them so much. I have decorated almost everything I own in them, from my screen saver to my T-shirt. I have the flag displayed in front of my home, one hanging in every window, and one on my car antenna. I'm wearing a flag pin on my collar. Even my daughter's shoelaces display the flag colors wherever she goes.

Apparently, I'm not the only one who favors the colors. A recent trip to Florida took me through some backcountry roads, in some cases in the middle of what seemed like nowhere, where I was delighted to see my favorite color on almost every door and mailbox.

The events of Sept. 11 have made us, as a people, more patriotic than I can remember, and the colors, seemingly "in" again, are displayed on anything imaginable ... including my kitchen cabinet.

"You know what, Mommy?" my daughter said, proudly displaying for me her newest masterpiece: the American flag. "That's my favorite color too!" (Courtesy Air Combat Command News Service)