Why are the Flags at Half-Mast?


I don’t know if I have just been noticing more these last few years, but it seems like the flag is at half-mast a tremendous amount of time. A nation cannot be perpetually in mourning, but it seems like I see the flag displayed in the attitude of mourning much of the time. Often, I have no idea what tragic event occasions the display. 

If you’re wondering about it as well, here’s a free resource that explains why the flag is at half-staff today.  In our case, it’s a statewide declaration from our governor to honor a deputy sheriff who died recently. 

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous7:46 PM

    I've seen flags at half-staff within states for retired (or state) senators and reps, as well as former governors. But I agree on the national lowerings. We should stay with the original limits on when the flag should be lowered, and for whom.

    LittleRed1

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  2. I seem to recall back in 2002 that flags were to be flown half-staff for servicemen killed in Afghanistan. I got it, and didn't get it. In war time, it would pretty much always be at half staff. It would seem more appropriate to fly it higher, if possible, as a promise that we would exact a price from the enemy.
    But I've never been on the pointy end (just barely too young for Vietnam), and don't know how it would seem to somebody who has.

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  3. If it were up to me, I would strip state governors of the ability to lower the national flag for any cause: that's a decision that should be made only on behalf of the nation. The state has its own flag, which could be struck on days of state-level mourning (as it properly is when the American flag is at half-mast: at half-staff the American flag should always be displayed alone).

    As for the occasions that a nation should mourn, I would say that they should be few indeed. The deaths of heroes, not politicians; at least some of those who died in Afghanistan would have been that.

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  4. Just had to chime in that I concur with all of this, it's epidemic.

    James, I have my suspicions it was anti-war propaganda, honestly. Or maybe it just looked that way from California.

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