red for war, white for peace

[tomlaidlaw@comcast.net]

A friend of mine, while teaching about the flag, stated that the field is on a red stripe for war, but on a white stripe for peace. is there anything to this, or is it just another of those logical myths?

[sarahw]

It's a logical myth, but it kind of makes for a nice story. Throughout history since the flag was designed people have attached meanings to the colors of the flag and what the stars and stripes represent, but as far as we know there was no such meaning in the minds of the original designers of the flag.

But meaning is meaningful if people believe it, so if you like thinking of the flag that way, it isn't wrong, but there's no historic reason for believing that any individual part of the flag has a specific meaning.

Thanks for asking!

Sarah