Your absolutely right, it’s “taking away the meaning.”
And we have a perfectly good and apt adjective for that: demeaning.
Lowering the American flag in the wake of a tragedy is absurd. And that’s what this terrible crime was to these victims and their families — a tragedy. No more and no less. It’s a car accident. It’s a bolt of lightning. It’s cancer.
Those who go along with lowering the flag in response to a tragedy like this have no understanding of this country or her people.
It’s disrespectful to the entire nation, but particularly those who serve this country in uniform.
“a tragedy”
I beg to differ. It’s mass murder, not a tragedy. It’s a heinous crime. With victims and aggrieved people left behind.
But it’s mass murder, not tragedy.