Partisanship no excuse for flagging manners
The moment was there, and then it was gone.
What a shame.
As the late Jake Hess, the great quartet man, used to sing: “We have this moment to hold in our hand, then watch as it slips through our fingers like sand.”
Donald Trump had such a moment last weekend upon learning his antagonist, John McCain, had succumbed to brain cancer.
Before any other decisions were made, a presidential order to lower American flags all week in honor of the fallen senator should have been an easy one.
It not only would have been in keeping with this nation’s tradition of tipping its cap to those who served it with distinction, but it also might have provided this contentious country with a much-needed moment of grace, if not healing.
The flag has no party affiliation. It flies over red states and blue states because it is both red and blue. The sight of it draped over a veteran’s casket, or being presented at graveside to a veteran’s family, is a lump-in-the-throat occasion, the proverbial picture worth a thousand words.
So how could this president have bungled so badly, vacillating on whether it should have stayed lowered in McCain’s honor?
It made even his most ardent supporters wince.
This was a moment that called for graciousness, reminding us we don’t have to go to every fight we’re invited to.
As a wise editor used to caution this writer: “Mozart wasn’t loud all the time.”
The president’s most exuberant admirers were again left to conclude the most dangerous person in Donald Trump’s world is Donald Trump.
Years ago, when his political star was on the rise, Joe DeNucci had a big decision to make. House speaker Tommy McGee, who had been so good to him, was about to be dethroned in a coup led by Everett’s George Keverian.
Though everyone knew Keverian had the votes he needed in his pocket, Joe, to whom loyalty meant everything, cast his vote in vain for Tommy.
Keverian was so touched he let DeNucci keep his chairmanship of Human Services, which eventually led to the latter’s 24-year incumbency as state auditor.
When Keverian died in 2009, he was waked in the State House Hall of Flags, after which his loved ones were provided refreshments by DeNucci in the auditor’s suite.
That was classy.
And that’s what Trump should have been.
Just as a good hurler knows he must mix his pitches, a good political leader ought to know that, too.
Honoring McCain? There was nothing partisan about it.
It was simply the right thing to do.