Lowering Flag for War’s Dead Brings a New Rift

[babylonsister]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/23/us/23flag.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin


Lowering Flag for War’s Dead Brings a New Rift

IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich., June 19 — The Stars and Stripes in front of the Veterans of Foreign Wars lodge here flies at half-staff because Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm issued a statewide order to lower the flag for 24 hours to honor a Michigan soldier killed in Iraq.

At a federal veterans’ hospital in Iron Mountain, Mich., the flag stayed at full staff. A bill would let governors order flags to half-staff.

Just blocks away, however, at the veterans’ hospital run by federal officials who say they do not answer to the governor the flag flutters at full staff.

A revered and emotionally fraught symbol, the flag is no stranger to differing opinions about its proper handling. Soldiers have laid down their lives for it, protesters have burned it and lawmakers have considered altering the Constitution to protect it.

But in Michigan, the differing response to Ms. Granholm’s order is part of a broader and, perhaps, more universal wrangle over how to commemorate tragedy when there is so much of it and whether lowering the flag each time a soldier is killed cheapens the tribute by doing it too often.

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[BleedingHeartPatriot]

1. This says it all. I wonder if the irony is deliberate.

universal wrangle over how to commemorate tragedy when there is so much of it and whether lowering the flag each time a soldier is killed cheapens the tribute by doing it too often.

:cry:

I hate this fucking war. MKJ

[babylonsister]

2. That got me, too; so when is it appropriate, and what's the point of

lowering the flag to begin with?

[frogcycle]

3. I agree it is only a small gesture

In large part it is pro-forma - the janitor or whomever puts the flag up leaves it halfway one day, then back to business as usual.

but to me it is good that it occur

it is a public acknowledgment of the tragedy that a family is going through. I can imagine a scenario wherein a widow might have occasion to point out the gesture to a small child, make it clear that "the world" acknowledges and appreciates daddy's sacrifice. Maybe it helps the kid a little. Maybe it even helps the widow a little.

The PGR escorts certainly seem to be generally well received. Even when the phelps crowd is not there, the fact that strangers take time out to pay tribute is appreciated by a lot of the survivors. I joined the PGR honor guard one time - just stood there in a line of people holding flags. Many of the people coming to the funeral home thanked us for being there. I think that is a similar thing.

To the extent that the gesture lets people "off the hook" as to caring more, doing more - well, that may be. Schwarzeneggar orders Calif flags to half staff for each one, and there are a lot from Ca. If he were to, say, take a stand and demand that Ca Nat Guard be properly equipped and trained, that would be far more impressive than just having a staffer insert today's name into the standard press release.

[babylonsister]

4. I'm not demeaning the idea at all; I'm a tad miffed at whomever

thinks the tribute would be 'cheapened' by lowering it so often.

[frogcycle]

5. agree

how would you like to hear that your loved one doesn't get the gesture because it would "cheapen" it - for whom? The higher-ranking? The richer?

just more self-serving spinmeister crap

there is not an honest thought or emotion left in public life, it would seem

[knitter4democracy]

6. I get flummoxed every time I hear someone upset about it.

It's actually a bit of a problem here in Michigan. Some right-wingers are really mad at the Governor for it, and I just don't get it. She orders the flag lowered for every Michigan soldier who dies, and the families are grateful (many have said so publically), and most people are for, but there are some who are really, really against it and say so quite loudly.

Granholm's under attack from all sides, it seems. Infuriating and sad.