Long Beach Shows Its Stars and Stripes

The City of Long Beach celebrated Flag Day with a ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park on Thursday. City Council President Fran Adelson, Council Vice President Len Torres, City Manager Jack Schnirman and Nassau County Legislator County Legislator Denise Ford were in attendence.

Flag Day, celebrated every year on June 14, is a day to acknowledge and honor the American flag adopted on that date by the Second Continental Congressadopted on that date in 1777. President Woodrow Wilson estblished Flag Day as a holida, via proclamation, in 1916.

“The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history," Adelson said, quoting Wilson at Thursday’s ceremony. "It represents the experiences made by men and women, the experiences of those who die and live, under the flag.”  

The ceremony was hosted by Danny MacPhee, Commander JVO of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Speakers included Ely Alterac of the Jewish War Veterans organization, commander Howard Kalachman of American Legion, and Omar Karom, commander of AMVETS.

Fr. Robert Splittgerber of St John’s Lutheran Church gave the invocation and later helped close the ceremony with a benediction by Rabbi Bennett Herman of Temple Emmanu-el.

Molly Ottensoser of the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach read her contest-winning essay on “What the American Flag Means to Me,” and Peggy Costigan wooed the crowd with her winsome words throughout the afternoon with a patriotic medley.