Flying at Half-Mast

I did something late summer last year that I’ve been meaning to do for a long time: install a flag pole in my yard. The family picked me up a retractable unit that flies about 25 feet in the air: it is pretty nice. I got it in right before the football season and it’s been flying ever since.

I try to adhere to the basics of flag etiquette: I always fly the American flag on top, I don’t let the flag touch the ground, etc. One thing that I haven’t adhered to is those times when the president or governor call for American flags to be reduced to half mast. You can actually get email alerts from the governor of Michigan on when to lower the flag. And for what it is worth, sadly due to the events in Iraq you can pretty much leave it at half staff.

Anyway, I changed that policy last week when I lowered the flag to honor fallen former president Gerald Ford. One of the things that happens when you follow the flag rules is that you instantly notice every flagpole in town and whether they, like you, are good Americans. I’ve found myself almost angry when I saw the flag in the major shopping center in Saline at ‘full mast’, flying for everyone to see. Then I remembered that I really didn’t bother just a few weeks before. So, I’ll ease off the traitors people that aren’t following the rules and just try to do a better job of keeping the flag at the correct height.