More than 75 years after Flag Day became U.S. law, the stars and stripes grab our gaze these days in constant portraits of how Americans see their country’s promise — sometimes dotted along historic graves of military veterans, draped upside down over a protester, or painted on a barn.

Resolved: that the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.” Resolution of Continental Congress 1777 June 14th is Flag Day,