Don’t Trash American Flag It Can Be Burned, With Dignity,

Never just throw an American flag in the trash. Instead, burn it.

But in doing so, the meaning of the flag should never be forgotten.

“You can just burn it - with dignity,” said Jackie Daniels, 69, of Cheney. “Have a fire. Very carefully put the flag in it and burn it.

“As you do that, realize that that flag represents the United States and everything we stand for,” she said.

In honor of Flag Day on Wednesday, Daniels and her husband, Al, will say the Pledge of Allegiance on the second-floor deck of their home.

Last Saturday at the Daniels’ home, the Spokane chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution held a picnic and flag disposal ceremony. The stars and stripes were cut up and burned in a demonstration of proper flag disposal.

Jackie Daniels’ great grandfather fought in the Civil War. Decades earlier, family member Diel Rockefeller fought in the revolution. Rockefeller was a farmer.

“He was a man like many of them who fought and then went and worked in the fields and then fought some more,” Daniels said.

She didn’t learn of her ties to the revolution until the early ‘70s when her mother joined the Daughters of the American Revolution, a service organization. Daniels also has joined. Since then, her husband has joined Sons of the American Revolution and their grandchildren have been involved in Children of the American Revolution.

As children, Jackie Daniels was a Campfire girl and Al Daniels was a Boy Scout. Back then, they learned the simple method to properly dispose of an American flag, she said.

“We just assumed everybody knew that,” she said.

“We have a very strong common interest as well as being very patriotic,” Daniels said.

Disposing of the flag properly is an important sign of respect for it, she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Color Photos