State’s flags at half-staff a whole lot

06/14/2005

Kevin Duchschere,
Star Tribune
June 14, 2005

On this Flag Day, as they have for so many years, Mary and Rob Engstrom of St. Paul will be flying the U.S. flag in front of their Como neighborhood home.

And when they hear that the president or the governor is lowering the flag to half-staff, they move theirs down the mast, too.

“There have really been a lot of times recently, but each of those circumstances really deserved it,” said Mary, a stay-at-home mom of three.

Since Jan. 1, the national and state flags in Minnesota have flown at half-staff about every other week on average—more than twice as much as in each of 2003 and 2004.

The ultimate mark of a society in mourning, the flag has been lowered this year for tsunami victims, victims in the Red Lake High School shootings, Pope John Paul II and former DFL Congressman Joe Karth.

But perhaps the biggest reason for the spike in half-staff commemorations is a new state law, effective last August, that mandates lowering the flags at the Capitol complex any time a Minnesota service person or public safety officer dies in the line of duty.

Although the law doesn’t require other public buildings to follow suit, many take their cues from such pronouncements.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has directed that the flag move to half-staff 15 times this year, mainly in honor of Armed Forces personnel and public safety officers. President Bush ordered it for the tsunami victims and the pope.

The next time will be for First Lt. Michael Fasnacht, 25, an Army Ranger from Mankato who was killed Wednesday by a remote bomb while on patrol near Tikrit, Iraq. The flag will be lowered on the day Fasnacht is buried.

“I think it’s a good thing and I don’t think it’s overdoing it,” said Rep. Ray Vandeveer, R-Forest Lake, who initiated and sponsored the bill. “It isn’t so much for the general public but to honor that person.”

Other controversies

Some recent half-staff directives have generated controversy elsewhere, either because the honor was considered inappropriate or because it was done by someone other than the president or the governor, who under the federal flag code are the only people authorized to lower the flag.

When President Bush ordered the flag to half-staff on the day of Pope John Paul’s burial, many wondered whether officially saluting a religious leader—and a foreign one at that—unduly blurred the line between church and state. In Madison, Wis., the Freedom from Religion Foundation protested Gov. Jim Doyle’s decision to keep flags lowered all of that week for the pope.

Wisconsin was the scene of another flag flap last winter.

The Green Bay Packers flew the flag at half-staff over Lambeau Field after the sudden death of former star defensive end Reggie White, drawing loud complaints from local veterans groups. Packers executives decided that in the future when a member of the organization dies, they will lower a team flag instead.

The student government at Bowling Green State University in Ohio recently asked Gov. Bob Taft to lower the flag whenever an Ohio service person is killed on duty.

But debate among students was heated, student government president Aaron Shumaker said, because some wondered whether it was appropriate.

“People were concerned that if we lowered the flag every time a soldier died, the flag would be lowered for months upon months,” he said.

No public objections were registered locally when the flag was lowered for Pope John Paul. While many in the American Civil Liberties Union thought it was inappropriate, the majority view of members essentially was “Get over it,” said local ACLU executive director Chuck Samuelson.

“He was a major world figure and a head of state who carried a lot of influence worldwide,” Samuelson said. “Elected officials who get to be governor and president get to decide for whom they lower the flag, and there’s a political calculus involved and that’s OK because we elect these leaders.”

But Samuelson added that, he believes the custom has been stretched to capitalize on public sympathy. It’s hard to argue against honoring tsunami victims, he said, even though Bush lowered the flags after the administration had received heat for not responding more quickly to the massive disaster.

“I really believe it’s a vote-pandering move,” Samuelson said. “It used to be that when you lowered the flag, you knew why without asking. Now, frankly, you don’t know.”

British custom

The custom of flying the flag at half-staff to honor the dead probably began on British ships in the 17th century.

Although scholars aren’t entirely sure, they believe it could stem from the ancient custom of representing death with a broken shaft. Another theory is that lowering the flag left room for an invisible “flag of death” to fly above it.

“There’s a heaviness one feels when they see the flag flying at half-mast,” said Richard H. Schneider, an editor in New York City and author of “Stars & Stripes Forever,” a book on flag lore. “I think it’s a good thing. I stop and try to think of who it’s for, and I try to find out.”

Until recent years, the act was mostly used to honor presidents, high-ranking government officials and war dead.

There also are days when the flag is automatically lowered under federal or state law, such as Memorial Day and Sept. 11, now known as Patriot Day.

But the flag also has been lowered for other public figures and world leaders, including Winston Churchill, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin and King Hussein of Jordan.

Last year Bush ordered flags to half-staff to honor Bob Hope, who had entertained U.S. troops in war zones for decades.

It’s OK as long as the president or the governor is making the decision, said Mike Buss, the point person on flag etiquette for the American Legion in Indianapolis.

But the symbolism generated by flying the flag at half-staff is eroded when it’s done by unauthorized people, he said. One example he cited: a police department that lowered its U.S. flag for a police dog.

Businesses, schools and private citizens aren’t obligated to follow half-staff orders, but many do when moved by a particular event.

Eugene (Peanuts) Bell of Bayport has flown the flag for nearly 60 years since serving in Italy with a ground crew during World War II. He lowered the flag last month for Sgt. Gerald Vick, the St. Paul police officer who was killed while working undercover, but did not for former President Ronald Reagan last year.

It was nothing against Reagan, he said. “They lowered it at the Legion [hall], and I figured that should take care of all veterans,” he said.