Date: 2004-06-07 13:46:00
Tags: rant, usa
respect

While driving to get lunch today, I saw five instances of the flag of the United States being flown at the top of the mast. The offenders were an apartment complex, a car dealership, an office building, a small business, and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Section 175 (m) of Title 36 Chapter 10 of the United States Code states in part:

"By order of the President, the flag shall be flown at half-staff upon the death of principal figures of the United States Government and the Governor of a State, territory, or possession, as a mark of respect to their memory."

I hope that news is disseminated quickly enough these days such that everybody in the country has heard about the recent death of President Ronald Reagan. If you care enough to fly the flag, you should also care enough to lower the flag to half-staff when appropriate. I wonder how many will continue to fly the flag at half-staff for the required 30 days.

Comment

[info]openmynd
2004-06-07T22:23:51Z
Most people don't really care. They're just armchair patriots anyway.

But the DPS?! OK. That is inexcusable.
[info]mduell
2004-06-07T23:13:04Z
Does that still apply since he's no longer President?

I can see that applying if Dubya died, but I'm that it applies to former heads of state.
Flags would be at half-staff quite often if you counted every time a former state Governor died.
[info]ghewgill
2004-06-08T01:02:43Z

I'll quote, since you seem to have missed it:



"The flag shall be flown at half-staff thirty days from the death of the President or a former President; ten days from the day of death of the Vice President, the Chief Justice or a retired Chief Justice of the United States, or the Speaker of the House of Representatives; 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; and on the day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress."

(anonymous)
2004-06-08T03:45:15Z
Considering he's responsible for the largest deficit in history along with the second largest whitewash, I think mine will stay where it is.
[info]ghewgill
2004-06-08T04:03:58Z
I was sure somebody was going to come up with that rebuttal. It's not about whether you agree or disagree with his politics, it's out of respect for the office.
(anonymous)
2004-06-08T14:27:05Z
..there hasnt been a president in my lifetime that made the office something worth respecting. Johnson pushed men to their deaths in vietnam to boost the war machine which would have killed both of us if we were ten years older, nixon was just a liar and a thief, carter couldnt find his bellybutton with both hands and ended up being a mediator in New Guinea or something, Ford was on the Warren commission which makes him an accompice after the fact in Kennedy's assassination. And then of course we get to Reagan unless I missed someone, who did end the cold war but turned around and demanded the world know we're going to implement SDI, something we now know he knew was impossible but wanted the ink. He lied for votes. He then proceeded to remove the word deficit from the dictionary and saddle my grandchildren's children with debt they'll have no idea how to pay for. Not to mention what the current president is doing to exacerbate that, again for ink and rich people's votes who after all, only want to remain rich at the expense of the poor. Tell me again what I'm supposed to respect. Hell I respect Clinton the most out of anyone, at least when he left office he said yeah, I was a liar like everyone else but I'll tell the truth now. Which is more than I can say for any other president before Eisenhauer.

The biggest mistake we ever made was making the presidency profitable for anyone. Now it's just a whorehouse.

Having said that, I tried to lower the flag just because that old man never did anything to me personally, to no avail.

;-)
Greg Hewgill <greg@hewgill.com>