The American Flag bears the colors we salute before the start of a school day or the first pitch of a baseball game.

The flag bears the colors men and women have fought and died to protect for more than 230 years.

And just as there are rules we must all observe how on to behave around the flag, and how to hang the flag, there are time-honored rules on how to dispose of those flags when they become faded, tattered and torn.

At 11 a.m. Saturday, members of Selma’s American Legion Post 20 will conduct a ceremony for the dignified disposal of unserviceable flags.

Speaking during last year’s ceremony, Legion Cmdr. Bob McMasters summed up the need for an event like this.

“A Flag may be a flimsy bit of printed gauze, or a beautiful banner of finest silk. Its intrinsic value may be trifling or great; but its real value is beyond price, for it is a precious symbol of all that we and our comrades have worked for and lived for, and died for — a free Nation of free men, true to the faith of the past, devoted to the ideals and practice of Justice, Freedom and Democracy,” McMasters said then.

This year’s ceremony will take place at the post’s headquarters, located at 4210 Hwy. 80 W. in Selma, and the general public is invited to attend the ceremony and bring any unusable flags for disposal.

We hope the event is well attended by the community, and that residents bring their old flags.

For more than 200 years the flag has been a symbol of who we are as Americans, and it is imperative we honor that flag, and those who defend everything it stands for.