In the real world this rock song is my signature tune. But when I needed a high energy dance number for my 1940s big band, I looked ahead in time for this inspiration. Swing xylophone, anyone?

The title turned out to be the question of the month. On Flag Day, June 14, 1943, the Supreme Court decided West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette. The Barnette children were Jehovah's Witnesses who had been expelled from school for refusing to salute the flag, which their faith counted as bowing to a graven image. Only three years earlier, in Minersville School District v. Gobitis, the Court had said schools could require the salute, and a wave of mob attacks on Witnesses across the country followed. Now, in the middle of a war, the Court reversed itself, 6 to 3. Justice Robert Jackson wrote that “no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox” in politics, nationalism, or religion. You cannot order anyone to love something, not even a country worth loving. You can only give them reasons.