OPINION:
Whenever I think of Flag Day, I’m reminded of 1965, when President and Lady Bird Johnson hosted the White House Festival of the Arts to honor contemporary American artistic achievement.
There were performances by Duke Ellington, the Robert Joffrey Ballet and the Louisville Orchestra. Artistic works displayed included pieces by Jack Levine, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Jacob Lawerence, Robert Rauschenberg, Andrew Wyeth and Georgia O’Keeffe.
Johnson acknowledged the artists’ importance when he said, “No people can afford to neglect the creative minds among it. They enrich the life of the nation. They reveal the farthest horizons of man’s possibility. And government — as representative of all the people — should always play a role in stimulating our people.”
Flag Day 2026 at the White House will have a different flavor.
PAUL L. NEWMAN
Merion Station, Pennsylvania
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