It was wonderful to see the crowd in Tofte on the 4th of July. The parade route was a sea of red, white and blue. Americans were proudly wearing the stars and stripes in an interesting assortment of styles.
There were cool T-shirts, headbands, earrings, baseball caps, and some funky shorts and pants. There were flags everywhere. Little ones were carrying and waving tiny flags. There were flags on antique cars, on fire trucks and of course the American Legion Honor Guard led the parade with the flag.
All over the county, flags were posted—on porches, at mailboxes, along the edge of Harbor Park and scattered on the graves of veterans in our local cemeteries.
Thankfully on Independence Day 2016 the flags at the top of the flagpoles in our community were flying high and proud. A beautiful sight.
I am so saddened that our flag is at half staff so often. It almost seems that the flag is lowered more than it is flying at full height. I’ve wanted to share my feelings about the half-staff flag for a while now, but I wanted to do so when the flag was not lowered. And every time I thought of writing this column, the flag seemed to be lowered.
I didn’t want to write this in the midst of someone’s sorrow to add a political debate to a time of grief. Maybe, if it were my loved one being mourned I might feel differently. But I truly don’t think so.
With the number of times the flag has been lowered in recent years, I feel that the impact of the flag at half-staff has been lost.
According to HalfStaff.org, in 2015 the flag was lowered nine times by national proclamation—in April to recognize the 150th year since Abraham Lincoln was assassinated; twice in May for Peace Officers Memorial Day and Memorial Day; in July for the four Marines killed in Chattanooga, Tennesse; on September 11 for Patriot Day; twice in October to honor the victims of the mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon and for the Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service; in November to honor the victims of the Paris terrorist attack; and in December to honor the victims of the attack in San Bernardino, California and for Pearl Harbor Day.
Already in 2016 the flag has been lowered six times— for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia; for former First Lady Nancy Reagan; in honor of the victims of the terrorist attacks in Brussels, Belgium; for Peace Officers Memorial Day; for Memorial Day; and in honor of the victims slain by a madman in Orlando, Florida.
In addition, Governor Mark Dayton issued proclamations lowering the flag to half-staff in Minnesota on February 3, 2016 in recognition of Immortal Four Chaplains Day and on February 26, 2016 in honor and memory of Sergeant Dillion Semolina, killed in a helicopter crash while serving our country.
All of these occasions are worthy of recognition and remembrance. The people lost should be mourned and their friends and families should be comforted in any way we can.
But does lowering the flag lessen their loss? Or during national tragedies like the horrific attacks in San Bernardino or at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, does it ease our national sorrow or serve to unite us?
I remember the first time I ever saw the flag being lowered, on the day of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. I remember sitting in the classroom at the old elementary school in Grand Marais, watching the flag slowly being lowered to half-staff.
It was shocking. The sight of our beautiful flag at half-mast against a bright blue sky is forever burned in my memory. It had such significance because I had never seen the flag at half-staff before.
Now, sadly, when we see the flag at half-staff, we sometimes don’t even know why. I was at the Grand Marais Post Office one day when the flag had been lowered—I can’t remember why—and another patron asked, “Why is the flag at half mast now?”
There must be other ways to let people know they are thought about, prayed for and remembered. Reading the proclamations issued about these events is very meaningful. The explanations of the work of Justice Scalia, the good-natured patriotism of Sergeant Semolina and the lists of names of victims of tragedies is heart wrenching. The words mean a lot. I don’t know that they need to be emphasized by the lowering of the flag.
Our flag is not just one of
many political points of view.
Rather, the flag is a symbol of
our national unity.
Adrian Cronauer
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