‘Don’t tread on me’ flag reminds us of who we are

NAVY.MIL, 10/2006 by Cmdr. Philip Pelikan (Chaplain) - [Excerpt] There's a Scripture in the New Testament that refers to Christ giving authority to his disciples to be able to "tread on serpents and scorpions," because they were symbols of evil in the Judaic tradition. ∴ As I thought about that verse, I began to wonder why the United States chose the "serpent" as the symbol on one the earliest flags of our nation -- the "Don't Tread on Me" flag, which we now see being flown on the "Jack" staff of every active U.S. Naval vessel in the fleet. ∴ Well, chalk another one up to good 'ole Benjamin Franklin. In 1751, he wrote a satirical commentary in his Pennsylvania Gazette suggesting that as a way to "thank" the British for their policy of sending convicted felons to America; American colonists should send rattlesnakes to England. I thought, "good job, Ben!" But it still didn't answer my question. Then I read about something he did three years later, using the snake to illustrate another point.

Ben Franklin sketched, carved, and published the first known political cartoon in an American newspaper. It was the image of a snake cut into eight sections. The sections represented the individual colonies, and the curves of the snake suggested the coastline. New England was combined into one section as the head of the snake. South Carolina was at the tail, and in between were all of the other 13 colonies (some of the pieces had more than one colony's name on it). Beneath the snake were the ominous words "Join or Die." This had nothing to do with independence from Britain, however, but was a plea for unity in defending the colonies during the French and Indian War. It played off of a common superstition of the time that said, "... a snake that had been cut into pieces could come back to life if you joined the sections together before sunset."

The snake illustration was then reprinted throughout the colonies. Dozens of newspapers from Massachusetts, to South Carolina ran Franklin's sketch, or some variation of it. For example, the Boston Gazette recreated the snake with the words "unite and conquer" coming from its mouth. So for one reason or another, Franklin's snake wiggled its way into American culture as an early symbol of unity, and of a shared national identity. Since the early Americans chose this "Biblically negative" image for such "positive" symbolism, it's no wonder that the plea, "Don't Tread on Me" became the saying of the day.

I wanted to share this with you as a kind of introductory shot, not only because I thought it was a cool story, but because of something far more serious. As we think about ourselves as Americans, and what we're up against in the "War on Terror," we're also in a fight today for our unity, and our very identity as a nation. And as we think about that, and pray for our leaders, our country, and our fellow service members in harms way; when we see that old flag waving on the bow of our ships, I hope we're reminded of all of the struggles through which we've come, and all the victories we've shared as Americans, defending freedom in all of the far-flung places of the world. We truly have much for which to be thankful.