Manufactured Or Forgotten Heroes?

In my grade school training, we spent time learning flag etiquette. It seemed to me at the time that if patriots were willing to die for our country, then the symbol of our country should be honored, or at least respected. I have discovered in the intervening years that many feel a sense of adoration for this symbol, but have not yet begun to understand the implications of failing to treat it with respect. There is good reason that the flag may not be used as an awning, or tied to advertising, made into clothes, or used as a tarp. The symbol of our country needs to be treated with a special solemnity that honors both fallen heroes and ideals to which we aspire.

We take great pains in displaying the symbol of our country with due respect, especially in public forums and during media events. Sadly, there is a trend that has undermined our understanding of what this symbol means and threatens to strip this patriotic emblem of it's meaning. We saw this problem exacerbated after the events of 9/11/2001. Patriots immediately took up as many disposable flags as there were hands, sending millions of US dollars to China, for symbols that were to be displayed improperly and let to turn to garbage on our streets. Even today we can find the American flag printed on boxes, napkins, clothes, and advertisements which are explicitly outlawed by statute.

A separate but equally disturbing trend has been the use of flying the flag at half-mast. It seems that our flags these days are perpetually flying at half mast which eclipses the meaning behind this tradition. There are explicitly stated reasons to fly Old Glory at half staff. They are limited to: The death of a President, or former President (for 30 days); Death of Vice President, Chief Justice or former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court or the Speaker of the House of Representatives (for 10 days); from the day of death to internment for Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, a Secretary of an Executive or Military Department, former Vice President or the Governor of any state, territory or possession; also, on the day of death and the following day for members of Congress. The only other time the flag is to be lowered to half staff is on Peace Officer's Memorial Day, unless it is also Armed Forces Day. Even on days that the flag flies at half-mast, it is to be run up briskly and then lowered slowly and solemnly to mid-staff. At the end of the day, it is supposed to be run up and down again before sunset, unless the flag is permanently lit.

The flying of flags at half-staff has lost nearly all meaning. We can hardly keep up with all the reasons for the lowering of the flag now-days. It seems that there are plenty of folks who wish to manufacture heroes and who misunderstand the intent behind lowering the symbol of our nation. Not only have we injected others into this stipulated list of those who deserve this certain respect, but we have undermined the sacrifice of military personnel by ignoring the message that our flag stands for. Our whole country may be in a state of mourning but to infuse each and every "offense" to our sensibilities with the weight of losing a President makes no sense. On the one hand, it is just a collection of red, white and blue fibers, but on a deeper level, this symbol of our country needs the respect that it deserves, especially since we use it as the emblem of our great experiment we call Democracy. If the Red, White and Blue become co-opted by corporate outlaws or the expediency of commercial interests, it has the power to undermine our country in subtle ways we have not yet come to realize. This amazing sleight of hand has reinterpreted the Bill of Rights, changed the way we see ourselves on the world stage and obscured the sacrifice of all those who died under the Stars and Stripes.