The heroes of our country are not determined by skin color, salaries, or even by the cars that they drive. They are present and represented by the jobs they do and how much they give of themselves in doing so. These heroes risk every piece of themselves for those that they will never know the names of. To them, their job is their life and their life is determined based on what happens when they clock in. These heroes walk among us without making the slightest sound. They care for others in ways that they themselves have never been cared for before. And they see the hurt and the pain in this world far more than most of us ever will. These are the heroes that return back to their families with a piece of them left elsewhere.

And the ones that don’t return send a long-lasting substitute.

Their substitute has been mocked, shamed, and burnt by decades of judgment and criticism. But for them, it is the reason that they died and gave of themselves so willingly and readily. This substitute stands for the purity, valor, and perseverance while simply remaining still. You see, this substitute is the last thing that the families who lost their hero will have to hold onto. For most, it will spend decades in a three-sided box where the loved ones will come to celebrate their greatest victories and cry their biggest tears. For this family, it is this flag that is everything just as it is for the heroic solider who laid under it hours, days, weeks, months, or years before.

These families watch a flag get raised in front of their office building or school and remember that in that moment, their hero did that. They died so that the flag of our country could wave freely. For these families, it is their knees that got them back to the place where they see the flag raised every day. All of the tears, shouts, and sleepless nights spent on their knees is what built them back to the place that they are in today. They know that every time they see the substitute, they will stand with it and for it, just as their hero taught them to do.

Just like the heroes, these families have lost a piece of themselves. They get down on their knees to muster up enough strength to rise again because just like the substitute, they too will stand. For these families, there will always be a piece of themselves on the flag because it is all they have left. They know what true loss, hurt, and pain is. Yet they rejoice that the piece they have lost still lives on the flag that ceaselessly waves. To them, that is everything and everything is there, standing with the substitute.

The flag of our country represents all of the freedoms and liberties that precious other countries have. Greatest among those are the rights to the freedom of speech and expression. Getting down on your knees is one example of this right. But like the hero’s family, it does not matter how many times you get down on your knees. It only matters when you get back up. When you stand down and show your weakness, there will be no triumph. It is in the moments of tremendous strength that you truly get to see the if you will rise above the level of your knees and become victorious. That is why they stand. They stand in place of the hero that can stand no more. They are their substitute.