|
I'm sure Lictor will undoubtedly rail against me in the forums, but I've
got to bark out my disappointment at flying the American flag half mast
for the death of the Pope.
Now I'm not saying the man shouldn't be mourned, I'm not going to say one way or another whether he was worthy of being mourned (except to point out that given the amount of people who have dropped whatever they are doing to book a flight to the Rome to mourn in person is pretty much a sure sign that some feel it's an important gesture). Regardless, this is a moot point. The American flag should be flown at half mast for people who have served America in some great capacity. Officially we're supposed to fly it at half mast for only the death of a President, a Vice President, Chief Justice or the Speaker of the House. We also fly it at half mast on Memorial Day, to honor those who died for our country. Additionally, though, the President and state's Governors can, at whim, decide to fly the flag at half mast for any other reason they deem necessary. Recently some have decided to fly the flag at half mast for the victims of recent Tsunami disaster, and even more recently, for the death of the Pope. And this really chaffs my hide. There should be mourning for these events, absolutely. I'm sad that we, as a society, don't have moments of pause in our lives when some tragedies happen. But the American Flag should be reserved for the death of American servants -- the men and women who died after working to further the cause of our nation. It should be clear cut issue of when a flag is flow half mast. I was surprised at my anger at people who claimed we shouldn't have been lowering the flag when Nixon died. Sure he was a shit heel. Sure he was a criminal (1). He still served at our call as a President. There should be no question that he gets the same respect as any other President. When the current shit heel, or his father, passes away, they should also get their due. We've been given the First Amendment so that we can voice our disapproval of the people who run this country when their alive (and after they've died). Heck, it was the First Amendment that allowed Woodward and Bernstein to take down Nixon in the first place. It's also the First Amendment that allows you to mourn the death of leader of the largest religious body in the world. The First Amendment doesn't, however, give the President and the Governors the right to usurp a public symbol in order to push their own Religious views(2). i,jasona
1) You know, I was going to at least look up some good things that
Nixon did, to show that he did some serving of the country during his
two terms. But everywhere I looked I saw he did pretty much two wrongs
for every right thing he did. The only thing I could see that he
established with crapping on was the EPA (although, truth be told, I
didn't look that hard). Still, he didn't bring the country to a halt...
well, actually he did with Watergate... still, I stand by my claim. He
should have gotten a full 30 days from every American flag (on a public
building) in the country.
|