Yesterday Deval Patrick ordered that all flags at state buildings be flown at half-staff any day that a funeral is held in Massachusetts for a soldier killed in a war zone.
Not only does this honor the fallen soldiers who have given their lives for our country, but it will also bring to the forefront something that has remained largely hidden from the public eye. (Thanks of course to the Bush administration).
While some may not agree fully, believing it may be more of a political statement than an act of honoring soldiers, I have to point out that no matter what the motivation, the people giving their lives deserve to be remembered.
Thousands of men and women have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past few years, with little to no recognition of their deaths. In my opinion it’s something that should have been done from the beginning, but at least it is now being corrected to honor the inevitable death of more in our military in the future.
Lowering flags now would be a political statement only if we never lowered the flag for killed firefighters or police or other civil servants. But we do. Not lowering the flag for soldiers killed in our employ would be a political maneuver used by an administration trying to divert our attention from our grave losses and it’s grave errors. Patrick is doing the right thing. Those men and women need to be remembered, and we need to be reminded that some of our neighbors are living daily with loss or it’s probability.
be the right word, since political implies a bit of exploitiveness – and I dont think his point is meant to be exploitive. There was a discussion on Boston Globe on line near the end of the half – mast for Gerald Ford. The topic was John Kerry choking up when he mentioned the Iraq war. I stated that I think a half-mast flag is the symbol for the Bush/Cheney administration. My question wasnt why did Kerry choke up but “Why isnt everyone crying?”
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I think you sum this up well here:
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“Thousands of men and women have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past few years, with little to no recognition of their deaths. In my opinion it’s something that should have been done from the beginning, but at least it is now being corrected to honor the inevitable death of more in our military in the future.”
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We should all be in grieving.
CT Gov. Jody Rell has flags flown at half-staff every time Connecticut looses a military son or daughter.
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I think that’s a nice touch.
Earlier this week, on the ferry out of New London, one of the passengers noticed the flag over Fort Trumble at half-mast. She asked if anyone knew why the flags were at half-mast. No response was received, with the exception of a few shrugged shoulders. Jodi Rell and Deval Patrick are doing the right thing by both clearly and visibly honoring the fallen soldiers and directly telling the public that they are falling for us. Dear inquisitive ferry rider, Did you already know why, and were you testing the rest of us? Either way, I hope you keep asking. There is something amiss in this country when we can have a war without each and every one of us sacrificing something.
I was wondering if you could provide a link? I am curious how this information is transmitted to citizens? municipalities?
googling “deval patrick” flags “half staff” go me [this
http://www.boston.co…] and this and this and a few others.
I did a search on Boston.com and was unsuccessful. Also didn’t find it in the major newspaper near Chicopee, at least not on line (www.masslive.com).
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Thank you Governor, too.
USA should take a hard look around and just get the message. We have no business being anywhere outside our contiguous borders. Bring everyone home. Transfer all the troops into the national guard. This will send a clear signal across the planet that we mean no harm and as a result Al Qaida and the Islamo Fascists will turn the attention to UK and belguim.
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Wasting any further tax dollarson TSA and Homeland defense could be all poured into fighting greenhouse emisssions.
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And all will be well.
I believe there is a liberal cabal planning to do just that! Can you believe it? Yes they are. Our ability to know that will soon be stopped when Rep. Conyers has them all subpoenaed into his perjury traps.
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So you’d better watch out. Be extra careful. I bet they think they think you’re earning too much money. If you don’t watch out, they are going to ship all your personal electronics to Gaza City or Darfur or Dhaka. No more smoothies for you. You’ll be toast without toast.