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Is Half-Staff Overused?

Is Half-Staff Overused?

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radcen

radcen

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Heard this on the radio driving home today. At the risk of being accused of being unpatriotic, I've been thinking this for some time now. It is my opinion that we are devaluing the meaning of flying a flag at half-staff. I mean, if it's at half-staff pretty much all the time, it doesn't mean anything anymore. Too often we don't even know why it's at half-staff anymore.
Is Half-Staff Overused?

Is Half-Staff Overused? | Iowa Public Radio
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Article starts off with several photos. You have to scroll down to get to the text, but it's worth the scroll.
 
Umm... what?

Maybe if it's at half staff 'most of the time' it should wake people the **** up to what's really going on to PUT IT THERE.

The only thing diminishing is people's give-a-damn, evidently. Every time I see it at half-staff I feel it. Maybe too many people are too distanced from what it really means to understand.

Without that, people would hardly realize anything was ever going on, militaristicly. They hardly talk about it on the news anymore. But it's daily life for thousand and thousand of families. Sorry if their struggles are 'tiresome'. . . . it's a rather insensitive view, don't you think?

Let's just ignore it! That'll make it go away! :roll:
 
I don't pay attention to those kind of things.
 
if anything it's the opposite...we are becoming immune to tragedy

I don't think we should over empathize to the point where we become anxious but some people need to learn to feel for others again

we are becoming too cold
 
Aunt Spiker said:
Umm... what?

Maybe if it's at half staff 'most of the time' it should wake people the **** up to what's really going on to PUT IT THERE.

The only thing diminishing is people's give-a-damn, evidently. Every time I see it at half-staff I feel it. Maybe too many people are too distanced from what it really means to understand.

Without that, people would hardly realize anything was ever going on, militaristicly. They hardly talk about it on the news anymore. But it's daily life for thousand and thousand of families. Sorry if their struggles are 'tiresome'. . . . it's a rather insensitive view, don't you think?

Let's just ignore it! That'll make it go away! :roll:
Click to expand...
1) Did you even read the article and read what some in the American Legion think and their points? They're not exactly traitors or unsympathetic, ya know.

2) When you see a flag at half-staff, how often do you know *why* it's at half-staff? You don't need to answer that, but you know the answer.
 
radcen said:
1) Did you even read the article and read what some in the American Legion think and their points? They're not exactly traitors or unsympathetic, ya know.

2) When you see a flag at half-staff, how often do you know *why* it's at half-staff? You don't need to answer that, but you know the answer.
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I did read . . . and I found it highly offensive.

ignoring it won't make it go away. It's a form of tribute and how dare they honestly suggest it just because they find it a bit tiresome? Seriously? Sure, I was a bit snippy, but seriously? Wow.
 
So you see a flag at half-staff, but don't know why/for whom. Do you stop and salute it anyway? Do you wonder what major tragedy has overtaken the military? Do you think "..Oh dear, somebody I don't know died, how sad"?
 
Like everything else in this sick society - it's usually tied to some PC, tug at the heart strings event that in days gone by might have made a headline, but no one would have considered worthy of lowering the flag.
 
Flying the flag at half-mast for Nelson Mandela and Whitney Houston? A foreign dignitary and a singer with a drug problem. What was it that got President Obama to make a proclamation ordering flags to be flown at half mast? I wonder.
 
radcen said:
Heard this on the radio driving home today. At the risk of being accused of being unpatriotic, I've been thinking this for some time now. It is my opinion that we are devaluing the meaning of flying a flag at half-staff. I mean, if it's at half-staff pretty much all the time, it doesn't mean anything anymore. Too often we don't even know why it's at half-staff anymore.

Article starts off with several photos. You have to scroll down to get to the text, but it's worth the scroll.
Click to expand...

Yes, agree with the person in the article.
 
_Sal said:
if anything it's the opposite...we are becoming immune to tragedy

I don't think we should over empathize to the point where we become anxious but some people need to learn to feel for others again

we are becoming too cold
Click to expand...

Times before these were much more brutal and horrifying.
You'd need a dozen more flag poles flying to fill the "half staff" requirements of then vs. today.
 
Aunt Spiker said:
I did read . . . and I found it highly offensive.

ignoring it won't make it go away. It's a form of tribute and how dare they honestly suggest it just because they find it a bit tiresome? Seriously? Sure, I was a bit snippy, but seriously? Wow.
Click to expand...
Ok, fair enough. But to me, if a gesture stands for everything, then it effectively stands for nothing. I admire and respect the gesture, only I want it to stand for something.
 
I'm going to add a request to my last will and testament.
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
Times before these were much more brutal and horrifying.
You'd need a dozen more flag poles flying to fill the "half staff" requirements of then vs. today.
Click to expand...

no you don't need any "more" poles erected just drop them as required, period

that was the question, not do you need more display?

regardless, those who are aware witness, those who aren't don't

your life, your choice
 
On the one hand I see flags at half staff on state buildings on an almost bi-weekly basis now.

On the other hand there's a lot of ****ed up **** going on these days.


Frankly I can't seem to bring myself to care beyond a brief moment of sadness these days. I'm all disastered out.
 
Patrickt said:
Flying the flag at half-mast for Nelson Mandela and Whitney Houston? A foreign dignitary and a singer with a drug problem. What was it that got President Obama to make a proclamation ordering flags to be flown at half mast? I wonder.
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Nelson Mandela deserved recognition for his statesmanship, dignity and his lack of bitterness in a peaceful transformation of political system. Truth and reconciliation over revenge. A role model for the world, not just South Africa.

Whitney may have had her drug problem, many people do, but she was a fine singer who brought happiness and pleasure to many people, and was a better known ambassador for the USA than half your politicians and statesmen that most of the world hasn't even heard of.

I'm happy the flag be flown at half-mast for Mandela just as for some poor, unfortunate boy who gets duped into joining the military and then ooh, quelle surprise, gets sent to a war zone.

At the end of the day it's a pointless piece of symbolism that most people don't notice anyway, like flying the flag in the first place.
 
_Sal said:
no you don't need any "more" poles erected just drop them as required, period

that was the question, not do you need more display?

regardless, those who are aware witness, those who aren't don't

your life, your choice
Click to expand...

The point was that life has largely been incredibly brutal for most of human history.
To the point that these days would seem like sunshine and rainbows.
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
The point was that life has largely been incredibly brutal for most of human history.
To the point that these days would seem like sunshine and rainbows.
Click to expand...

well your point is well made that for many of us life these days is damn good, especially in comparison to past centuries and we live in the first world so better than most of the rest of the planet

I do believe that is precisely why we or at least many of us see tragedy in a more empathetic and compassionate light

it's the contrast that allows us to understand the pain

half mast seems the least we can do
 
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