Thursday, July 08, 2004
Half-Staff
This whole thing about the American flag being flown at half-staff is bugging me. Not that it's at half-staff...that I agree with. But it seems a lot of people aren't getting it.
When former President Reagan died, the flag was supposed to be at half-staff for 30 days. That meant on July 3 it should go back up. There's an official document on the White House website where President Bush says, "it is hereby ordered that the flag of the United States shall be displayed at full-staff...beginning July 3, 2004."
Yet that's not the case everywhere. On July 4, almost everywhere I drove by had it at half-staff. Today is July 8. The Post Office and Fire Station still have it at half-staff, where restaurants have it full. I know they can lower it for a state mourning, but I haven’t heard of anything.
Why can’t there be a website that will have the official "flag status" so everyone can know? This bugs me.
One cool thing I learned researching this today though is on Memorial Day the flag should be flown at half-staff from sunrise until noon and then it is "raised briskly" to the top of the staff until sunset to honor the nation's war heroes. That’s really cool. You know, I got a chill when I read that. I got a chill when I wrote it. There's just something about that visual: honor and remembrance for those who protected our nation then raising it briskly to the top to show our strength as a nation. That really pumps me up.
Maybe that's why I'm upset that people can't seem to get this flag-flying thing right.
When former President Reagan died, the flag was supposed to be at half-staff for 30 days. That meant on July 3 it should go back up. There's an official document on the White House website where President Bush says, "it is hereby ordered that the flag of the United States shall be displayed at full-staff...beginning July 3, 2004."
Yet that's not the case everywhere. On July 4, almost everywhere I drove by had it at half-staff. Today is July 8. The Post Office and Fire Station still have it at half-staff, where restaurants have it full. I know they can lower it for a state mourning, but I haven’t heard of anything.
Why can’t there be a website that will have the official "flag status" so everyone can know? This bugs me.
One cool thing I learned researching this today though is on Memorial Day the flag should be flown at half-staff from sunrise until noon and then it is "raised briskly" to the top of the staff until sunset to honor the nation's war heroes. That’s really cool. You know, I got a chill when I read that. I got a chill when I wrote it. There's just something about that visual: honor and remembrance for those who protected our nation then raising it briskly to the top to show our strength as a nation. That really pumps me up.
Maybe that's why I'm upset that people can't seem to get this flag-flying thing right.
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