Floats the Banner, Lighted Well

Just today, I got the last of three checks donated to the Chippewa Falls Public Library by local veterans' groups helping us to offset the installation of a spotlight on the front of the building. The light shines up on our American flag, enabling us to leave it up 'round the clock.

I have always maintained that libraries, more than any other institution in an open society, symbolize freedom, so it is fitting and just that the flag fly in front of the building all the time.

The three groups that donated to the flag-lighting were AmVets Post 32, American Legion Post 77 and VFW Post 1038. The complete cost of the project was $636.00, and $500.00 of this will be paid for with donated money. Roshell Electric did the work in a very timely and professional manner, and I am personally very pleased with the results, as several people have told me they are, as well.

To see the flag up at night as I walked by the other night on the way home from downtown brought to mind part of a poem I once heard in Boy Scouts:

"Years have passed, but still in glory
With a pride we love to see,
Laureled with a nation's glory
Waves the emblem of the free;
From the rugged pines of Northland
To the deep'ning everglade,
In the sunny heart of Southland
Floats the banner Betsy made."