Just keep the flag at half-staff
Federal law governs protocol for when the American flag — that revered fabric of our national identity so ubiquitous in the news of late — should be lowered to half-staff. The regulations include 30 days after the death of a president, 10 days after the death of other prominent officeholders, every Memorial Day and an ad hoc period of time upon presidential proclamation for tragedies from time to time.
Monday, President Trump ordered flags to be lowered on account of the massacre in Las Vegas, where a terrorist murdered 58 people, and sent to the hospital more than 500. The ritual is a familiar one, having been done already in the incumbent’s term, and done before so often during the Obama and Bush presidencies.
It’s almost trite. A socalled “lone wolf ” murders a chance number of Americans. Feckless leaders offer “thoughts and prayers” but no true policy solutions. Critics are admonished to silence, for fear of politicizing a tragedy. People forget. The cycle repeats — with the flags at half-staff, of course.
I am not going to suggest actually implementing the customary policy solutions. Assault weapon bans, increased emphasis on background checks or anything of the like will not come to fruition. Not with Republicans controlling the levers of government. Not with the malevolent National Rifle Association and this country’s perverted fetish of the machinery of death being more important to leaders than the children and grandchildren in their midst. Not with a media that bamboozles and scares folks into thinking a bipartisan approach to reduce violence is a Stalinist ploy to confiscate rifles and enslave the population into tyranny. No, I want to speak about the flags. If we are not going to do anything, the least our leaders — and indeed, all of us — can do is accept our abdication of responsibility and failure of imperative moral action. The least we can do is not to pretend we have taken care of the problem with thoughts and prayers and figuratively sweep the unholy mess under the rug.
We should leave the flags at half-staff as long as this hellish cycle continues, which all available data suggests will be the foreseeable future. A mass shooting occurs in this country, on average, every day. In no other civilized country is this even a perennial problem, but for us it is a daily one.
As the president has so bravely put it of late, the flag represents this country. It represents her citizens and values and strengths. It represents us. And we’re dying. We’re bleeding and in agony over leaders unwilling to do the right thing and fix the problem with which we have been confronted. A country like that is hurt, and federal law is clear that such hurts and tragedies prompt a sign of respect. Our president, after all, is so keen on respecting the flag.
Horwitz is a student at the University of Texas School of Law.
BIBLE VERSE
Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength:
Isaiah 26:4