Posted on 09/16/2012 8:01:54 AM PDT by rlmorel
It seems like everywhere I look now, the flag is at half-staff. And it seems like it has been this way for the past year, if not years.
What is going on here?
Please don't misunderstand me. I am fully onboard for the show of mourning and respect the act engenders when done for appropriate circumstances. To pay respect to this man, for example is entirely justified:
And, so is this, in my opinion:
I simply believe it is being over-used, and it is not a positive thing.
Here are the guidelines which codify when the flags are flown at half-staff:
1.) For thirty days after the death of a current or former president or president-elect (as occurred after the death of President Reagan and the death of President Ford.)
2.) For ten days after the death of a current vice president, current or retired chief justice, or current speaker of the House of Representatives.
3.) From the day of death until interment of an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, a secretary of an executive or military department, a former vice president, or the governor of a state, territory, or possession.
4.) On the day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress.
5.) On Memorial Day until noon.
These seem somewhat appropriate to me, but it is the last one that I have an issue with:
6.) Upon presidential proclamation.
This is problematic for me, because due to Presidential proclamation, we have seen the following: the interment of Frank Buckles, the death of Senator Ted Kennedy; the death of Pope John Paul II, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the deaths of Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks, Virginia Tech massacre, Fort Hood massacre, the death of Libyan Ambassador Chris Stephens, and the 2012 shooting in Aurora Colorado.
The flag was even flown in one state at half-staff for Whitney Houston! A talented person whose life ended early because of her various drug abuses. A shameful example.
I hope people don't misunderstand my feelings on this. Some of those presidential proclamations listed above are legitimate (in my opinion) and it is true some I disagree with may be legitimate to others. Furthermore, It is not that I think people who die in natural disasters or killed in shootings by deranged people are trivial, they are not; nobody is trivial to themselves and the world that surrounds them.
But is it always a situation for official national mourning?
During WWII, when did we fly the flag at half-staff? After the B-17 raids on Schwienfurt? After the unexpectedly bloody conquest of Tarawa? When we had 6000 Americans killed in 30 days of fighting on Iwo Jima? After the Normandy invasion? When the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed? I don't know, perhaps another Freeper knows where to find that information, but I'll bet not all of those. But lately, I have been unable to view an American flag that has not been flying at half-staff except for perhaps, my own.
This has been nagging at me a long time now, and it came to a head with the lowering of the flag in tribute to the murdered diplomats in Libya.
We did not value those diplomats enough to provide them adequate protection in an environment where the acts of abduction and beheading are well established, but we value them enough to lower the flag for them? I guess this means that if Valerie Jarrett meets an untimely end, she will most definitely have the flag lowered to half-staff in her memory.
That is logical, right?
But my problem with this particular exercise is not the inconsistency, it is the message it sends to us as citizens, and to the world in general: That we are victims.
I personally think this is unhealthy, both from an individual moral and psychological standpoint, but also unhealthy (and dangerously so) from national and international perspectives because it makes us look weak. And if even if the pig-eyed medieval thugs inhabiting many parts of the middle east can't figure out how to use a flush toilet, they readily understand and recognize weakness.
Perhaps most of all, I hate living in an environment where people constantly have their heads bowed in mourning at the behest of the state. I believe that there are appropriate situations to do just that, but to do it constantly is corrosive and dangerous, and renders it meaningless. But a country that constantly has its eyes on the ground CANNOT do great things or be a leader, and that is where I see the current state of affairs leading to.
Good to have you aboard, brother...:) We KNOW we are on the same page here!
But, you ARE correct!
Wow.. I was actually thinking about this the other day. Noticed all the flags around have been at half- for the past week or so (that I’ve noticed) and the only thing I could think of was 9/11. It is rather ridiculous.
1) 30 days after Pres/former is, I think, excessive. A week or tenday is sufficient.
2) Same for VP/Justices. Maybe 3-5 days.
3/4) Congressmen can have a half-mast in their state. For maybe a day or two, including Speaker. Cabinet/Dept heads, Secretaries, not really unless they fall under another category.
5) Memorial day, of course.
6) As Presidential decree, but it is way overused now. 9/11 understandable, Houston not so much. Some national heroes like Armstrong, or MoH recipients, but that’s about it. And this should only be a single day lowered.
7) Within a state, governors have I think some control over flag-lowering. Not sure exactly how much. Should be limited to state-specific things, and only State flags lowered.
Feel the same way, VERY few people know ANYTHING about flag etiquette. I have had to personally talk to several owners about replacing their flags (torn, worn out, etc.). Sad really. Here is a refresher for those interested.
http://www.usflag.org/flagetiquette.html
This is how some SoCal high schools kids did it, not that long ago...http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTcknSH2YPFjS0ntA4M2aZBI59E2jlsC67P-9Ttx-J7ZqbMXGi3sQ
When Zero ordered flags flown at half-mast for the murders in Colorado; I noted with some amusement that CANADIAN flags around Red Hampshire were also flying at half-mast. WTF?
Was the school under attack by Mexicans?
Alan Keyes used to wear a flag pin on his lapel upside-down for the same reason...not sure if he still does...
Rendering honors is now just another form of political correctness.
Obama (and Bush) has flown it at odd times- like for the Sikh shooting in particular, and the civil rights women mentioned & the Pope.
The outgoing Governor of Red Hampshire (Lynch) would lower the U.S. Flag every time a cop was killed in the line of duty...local or state; it didn’t matter. He has the power, but it still drove me nuts.
I flew my flag at half-staff the day Neil Armstrong died, on the anniversary of 9-11 and on the day that Ambassador Stephens died. I felt the need to honor these occasions. I didn’t read anywhere whether they were right or wrong.
I definitely agree with your post and I can’t SEE a flag on
a military coffin without tears coming to my eyes.
We lost 4 more servicemen today in Afghanistan. I wonder if it
is appropriate to lower my flag to half-staff for their deaths.
Do you know? I am seriously asking.......
I’m OK with a citizen flying his flag at half staff whenever they want to.
Governors have the authority to order the US flag flown at half staff when a resident of the state dies in the line of duty while in the military. I’m torn on this one. It’s a nice tribute, but what happens in wartime when it’s an everyday occurrence? Should the the nation have flown the flag half staff every day of WWII, or the Korean War?
In our state, the flag is flown at half staff if a state employee is killed while at work. This would include everything from death due to noble self sacrifice to showing up hungover and getting in an accident.
I’m not entirely comfortable with the proliferation of government decreed half staff events. Dilution of meaning through overuse is a real issue.
I deeply love Old Glory. The guidelines for flying the flag at half staff are just that — guidelines. They are designed for the appropriate display of our flag on military posts, government buildings, public property, etc. However, private citizens may choose to fly their flags at half staff as an expression of personal mourning.
I agree that official declarations at the national level to fly the flag at half staff have been overdone by Obama (OWHNI), who has used it to recognize individuals for political or social accomplishments. I consider that to be an abuse of the solemn purpose of flying the flag at half staff. National mourning should not be trivialized.
Though Obama (OWHNI) ordered flags to be lowered for the funeral of Dorothy Height, a civil rights activist in the 60s, he did not order the flag to be flown at half staff when a helicopter carrying Navy SEALS was shot down in Afghanistan last year. It was the greatest loss of life for any single military operation in the history of the SEALS.
The problem isn’t simply one of overuse. National appropriateness and solemnity should be the defining issues. For myself personally, I have been mourning for my nation by tying a black ribbon to the top of the flag pole. (That is the equivalent of half staff, when the flag is fixed on a pole and cannot be lowered.) See my post at
http://retiredday.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/fly-the-flag-at-half-staff/
If things change this November, I will come out of mourning and remove the black ribbon.
Thank you for clarification. I will go out right now and
lower it for our dead heroes....as I mourn their senseless
deaths by people they trusted.
Private citizens may choose to fly their own flag at half staff as an expression of personal mourning. “Official” declarations to lower flags are only applicable to flags on public, municipal and military locations.
Thank you. I haven’t had my flag and pole for very long, and
always want to do the right thing. :)
It’s now at half-staff for the 4 troops killed.
On a personal note, I find your desire to pay tribute to our nation’s fallen warriors entirely appropriate and touching. It’s your flag, fly it at half staff when you feel the need. There is no law prohibiting it.
In fact, I feel that this sort of heartfelt display by citizens is more appropriate than the decrees of politicians. In my own case, had I died in the line of duty, I’d rather that my family, friends and others so inclined flew their own flags at half staff than have a governor decree that government workers do so for me.
I appreciate your kind words.
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