Half Mast

I teach at a public elementary school and when I arrive each morning, the first thing I check is the flagpole. These last few years, about half the time the flag is at half mast, due to the death of a notable politician, a local service member or first responder, or because there’s been a mass shooting. We are saturated with national sorrow these days, and this doesn’t even include the endless wars and their repercussions in Iraq, Afghanistan, lately Syria and Yemen, and god knows where else. Even on the mornings when the flag flies high, I find myself wondering how many days this will continue, keeping a mental tally like those incident posters in factories: “It’s been 10 days since an accident. Good job!”

My proposal: keep the flag perpetually at half-mast. Then, on days when nothing tragic happens, raise it in celebration!

We could even take it to a three-tiered system. The half-mast level would be for natural deaths and tolerable violence here in the USA. But when there is a larger attack like the mass gun shootings or terrorist incidents that we have come to expect, then we could lower the flag almost to ground level.

Another idea would be to study the problem of violence in America, come to some national consensus, and work seriously to eliminate or mitigate the economic, social, and cultural factors that semi-perpetually keep Old Glory in limbo.

2018: A Somber Year