I was listening to NPR (yea, that commie liberal propaganda machine out to poison our minds) and they brought up the fact that Missouri, and now some other states, have begun to lower their flags to half-staff whenever one of their citizen-soldiers are returned to them from Iraq in a coffin. This is right and good, to honor each individual husband, son, wife, daughter, that gave their life in service of their country. But......what's this? How DARE they do such a thing? There are those who are suggesting that it's not appropriate to lower the flag for just anybody in such a fashion. Oh really. They say that we have Veterans day and Memorial day to honor our vets living and dead, and that should be enough. You don't say....
What I see here is the same mindset that suggested we shouldn't be allowed to see pictures of Air Force cargo plans full of flag-draped coffins. Nope, we don't need to be upsetting people by putting the cost of this war right in their face, where they have to see it and acknowledge that all this is not just something happening somewhere else, that it's happening to us all, and not all of us can remain detached as the body count mounts in this insane conflict our insane "president" got us into.
I remember the time when westerns and combat movies were sanitized, cowpokes wearing pressed, clean jeans and not a drop of blood to be seen when the bad guys, or even the good guys, caught a bullet. You never saw one soldier with a look of terror painted on his face, and the enemy was made out to look like some maniacal smiling half-human creature that was perfectly alright to kill. Then, finally, Hollywood got real and started portraying the not so clean and pretty aspects of conflict, be it in the old West or in Vietnam, and suddenly cowboys and indians wasn't so fun anymore. Even the squeaky clean bulkheads and decks of the Enterprise gave way to the dirty, not always well maintained look of a more realistic depiction of spacecraft interiors. You might remember that the Millennium Falcon looked like it hadn't had a wax job in quite awhile, and it carried it's well earned share of scorch marks. Life, real or imagined, is rarely pretty.
I am not the kind of person who thinks burning the flag is going to make friends and influence people, despite the fact I and plenty of other Americans have plenty to protest about. I think lowering the flag to half-staff is a VERY appropriate way to pay honor to my brothers in arms who did not make it back. But, I have been tempted of late to consider flying the flag in another configuration that delivers a message loud and clear, another way which under these circumstances I believe is right and proper, and respects the flag and the nation it stands for......upside down. Flying the flag upside down is the internationally recognized signal of distress. Not since World War II has this country been so tested, from within as well as without. Vietnam was just a primer. America is beginning to lose sight of what it stands for, and if that is not an emergency, I don't know what is.
I was listening to NPR (yea, that commie liberal propaganda machine out to poison our minds) and they brought up the fact that Missouri, and now some other states, have begun to lower their flags to half-staff whenever one of their citizen-soldiers are returned to them from Iraq in a coffin. This is right and good, to honor each individual husband, son, wife, daughter, that gave their life in service of their country. But......what's this? How DARE they do such a thing? There are those who are suggesting that it's not appropriate to lower the flag for just anybody in such a fashion. Oh really. They say that we have Veterans day and Memorial day to honor our vets living and dead, and that should be enough. You don't say....
What I see here is the same mindset that suggested we shouldn't be allowed to see pictures of Air Force cargo plans full of flag-draped coffins. Nope, we don't need to be upsetting people by putting the cost of this war right in their face, where they have to see it and acknowledge that all this is not just something happening somewhere else, that it's happening to us all, and not all of us can remain detached as the body count mounts in this insane conflict our insane "president" got us into.
I remember the time when westerns and combat movies were sanitized, cowpokes wearing pressed, clean jeans and not a drop of blood to be seen when the bad guys, or even the good guys, caught a bullet. You never saw one soldier with a look of terror painted on his face, and the enemy was made out to look like some maniacal smiling half-human creature that was perfectly alright to kill. Then, finally, Hollywood got real and started portraying the not so clean and pretty aspects of conflict, be it in the old West or in Vietnam, and suddenly cowboys and indians wasn't so fun anymore. Even the squeaky clean bulkheads and decks of the Enterprise gave way to the dirty, not always well maintained look of a more realistic depiction of spacecraft interiors. You might remember that the Millennium Falcon looked like it hadn't had a wax job in quite awhile, and it carried it's well earned share of scorch marks. Life, real or imagined, is rarely pretty.
I am not the kind of person who thinks burning the flag is going to make friends and influence people, despite the fact I and plenty of other Americans have plenty to protest about. I think lowering the flag to half-staff is a VERY appropriate way to pay honor to my brothers in arms who did not make it back. But, I have been tempted of late to consider flying the flag in another configuration that delivers a message loud and clear, another way which under these circumstances I believe is right and proper, and respects the flag and the nation it stands for......upside down. Flying the flag upside down is the internationally recognized signal of distress. Not since World War II has this country been so tested, from within as well as without. Vietnam was just a primer. America is beginning to lose sight of what it stands for, and if that is not an emergency, I don't know what is.
3 comments:
Yes, THE Michael, very powerful post. And flying the flag upside down would also be symbolic of what our world seems like these days.
That is a frakkin' _excellent_ idea! I'm kicking myself that I never thought of it! I got a crash course in flag etiquette from my sister's Army days, and _man_, there can't be a stronger signal than flying Old Glory upside down. If I had a flag pole you best believe I'd be flipping that flag right now. It's a classy way of registering my alarm at the way this country has been going, beginning with Vietnam and continuing with the so-called "Patriot Act" and ending God knows where...
Good piece, Michael. I'm all for lowering the flag to half staff to honor the war dead. I'm not in favor of flag burning or flying the colors upside down. But that is just me.
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