Are you planning to fly the flag on September 11th?

Absolutely!!! And light candles as well! In memory of the innocent people who died, in memory of the fire fighters, law enforcement and EMS responders, and for the soldiers, sailors and airmen who have died protecting us. I will also fly it to remember our Navy SEALs and Spec Ops folks killed recently in Afg. And from before in Operation Redwing along with all those other times we will never hear about. May God bless and protect them and their families and may Osama burn forever in hell at the hands of Team 6. Payment for what was done to us has only just begun. less

I think its presumtive to assume that people don't. In my case I refuse to subscribe to the "we deserve it" theory for how we have treated everyone in the world. I think in many cases we have gone beyond to help others when we really had no obligation to be involved. Certainly we have also involved ourselves in things in the negative, though no matter out intention good or bad, most that we aid eould quickly bite the hand that feeds them. For those that say "We deserve it" it amounts to the same as saying someone deserves to be robbed because they are wearing fancy clothes or raped because they wore a sext dress. We as a society look for any way to make an excuse for the actions of others... they were treated unfairly, they were poor, or its not their fault they acted out in protest. The truth is they and their governments are accountable for the actions they take. If they confront us as a people with violence, hatred or agression we as a people have no obligation to coddle them and put them to bed with a binki and pillow. less

Your analogy is logically flawed. We were attacked on 9/11 in part (though the reasons are manifold) because of a longstanding violent, oppressive foreign policy in West Asia and because of our financial, military and political sponsorship of the Israeli state. A person that is a victim of sexual assault or a robbery has typically not murdered anyone, flattened entire cities, redrawn borders and left entire cities displaced and homeless, violently overthrown governments, or otherwise harmed their attacker. We, as a nation, have done those things - some of those things multiple times, in fact - over the past several decades. Those actions have created poverty, civil unrest and a lot of anger in many parts of the world. This does not mean that 9/11 was "deserved". What myself and the other poster were addressing is that many lives have been unjustly lost, and that if we were to fly our flag at half mast it would have to be every day - because every day marks the anniversary of an unjust tragedy.

I am disappointed and hurt by your analogy. I feel it is exploitative, flippant, and perhaps most importantly, it is deliberately sensationalist. I am certain that we are both intelligent, thoughtful adults and I have the utmost faith that we can talk about the complicated issues at hand without resorting to sensationalism.

I do not have any reason to believe anyone in this thread - myself included - feels the events of 9/11 were just or warranted in any way. I am at a loss for where you have extracted this phrase and attitude from, because no one in this thread has said anything to that effect. I notice your profile says you are from California - do you know any families of those lost on 9/11? Did you personally know anyone killed that day? I am from New York, and I do and did. I know many such families, and knew many such people that died. I am horrified that you would imply that I wish that pain upon those surviving families, or that I am somehow happy or vindicated because those people are no longer with us today. It is shocking to me that you would imply that. Furthermore, it seems ironic to me that you would say the following in light of your criticism of what you perceived as an "eye for an eye" attitude:

The truth is they and their governments are accountable for the actions they take. If they confront us as a people with violence, hatred or agression we as a people have no obligation to coddle them and put them to bed with a binki and pillow.

Many west Asian Islamist terrorists would say - and have said - precisely what you are saying. They would agree with you. Scary thought, right? They would say - and have said - this about our nation's people. And this is how violence begets violence, in my humble opinion. This is how an eye for an eye leaves the world blind.

All I stated is that I will not fly a flag on 9/11, because every day there are similar violent attacks in the world. Some of these we perpetrate, and some we don't. I can love my nation and its people while still questioning the motivations of certain administrations and disagreeing with our foreign policy. And I do. I am a proud New Yorker and a proud American. On 9/11 I will mourn those I've lost, contact surviving family and speak with them, and quietly consider our foreign policy and the needless wars that are continued each day to the effect of more casualties. I believe our world and our human race deserves better than this, and I refuse to hate or wish harm on any one nation, race, religious people or other group.

I will not fly a flag. This does not mean I am not a patriot. It does not mean that I do not respect your choice to fly a flag. I do not shame or speak ill of anyone that chooses to fly a flag. All I ask is that people afford me the same courtesy. This is, after all, a free country, isn't it? less

I in fact was in NY about 5 days after the attack in efforts as the result of it. And live in this overly sensative state currently but grew up much of my life on the East Coast and Southern States. My other highlights include Korea, Germany, the Philipines, and several places in the Med. I very much believe in an eye for an eye and in fact I agree with any part of our administration that is pro-active about it. I have no issue with us as a nation maintaining a presence and control through military force to ensure our other more passive means are considered by those we present to as a better option for them then to push for the force on force option with us. I respect your right to not fly a flag, to not support agression as a solution to maintaing our place in the world from those that wish to see us fall, and to be kind to all. I like you do not wish for war but when a slap is given I have no intention of turning the other cheek, I will simply beat them into submission with a frying pan. I agree that we will probably not agree on political issue because of the variations in how and what we believe and think. I respect your rights to believe the way you choose. And yes I do stand with Israel as well. less

Thank you for your response and for listening to my statements even if you don't agree with them. I appreciate that you come from a military background and I understand your sense of protectiveness of military personnel. I respect this and also have many family members that served. I hope you can understand that I am not making a blanket attack on all or even most military officers - I really take more of any issue with our foreign policy, rather than individual military officers.

The forums are probably not the best place to discuss this, but I think we may actually have more in common than we may immediately realize. I apologize if my response was heated, it's just a very sensitive issue for me because the events of 9/11 are geographically and emotionally very close to me. I remember not being able to go to sleep at night and crying because I thought they were going to start bombing where I lived - I was only in 7th grade in 2001. I remember I was supposed to clean my room each week but I would tell my mother "there's no point; they're going to bomb us and blow the house to pieces, anyway." I remember kids at school whose mothers and fathers simply never came home, or did and got sick from respiratory problems or other 9/11 related fallout. It's hard for me sometimes to keep cool when I talk about this issue, but I appreciate you bearing with me and sharing your thoughts. less

In fact, yesterday, after I responded to this thread, I went out to the outbuilding where My Man has his workshop. I asked him if we had a flag in flying condition, and we looked around and all of ours were too tattered. We went to the store and bought a new one and he hung it as soon as we got home.

Coming from families filled with fire fighters and cops, we have been told that anniversaries of tragedies and deaths are not to be used to fly the flag at half mast. That is only for the actual event, and the timing of when to raise the flag to full mast is variable. So, at least according to the cops and fire fighters in our families, the flags should not be at half mast today. less

Thanks for letting us know the correct etiquette, P'Gell. Since ours is wall-mounted, there's no way to fly it half-staff, and I always felt bad because of that.

By the way, a little correction is needed. Half-staff is when the flag is flying halfway up a flagpole, while half-mast is flying a flag halfway up a ship's mast. less

Just found out that Patriot Day (Sept 11) has recently been one of the few anniversaries in which flags can be flown at half staff. (I got "staff" and "mast" mixed up. I'm having a brain fog day. )

A flag may only be flown at half staff if it is a fully vertical pole. Flags on an angle, (like the flag on the little holder outside your front door or on your tree) are never to be flown at half staff.

The reason I got it wrong was that the anniversary of deaths and birthdays of most presidents, and other people who got a half staff flying when they died are not to be used to fly at half staff for subsequent anniversaries.

The rules for the US: (The rules for UK, AUS, Canada etc may be different.)

Under 4 U.S.C. § 7(m) the flag of the United States is to be flown at half-staff in following circumstances:

For thirty days after the death of a current or former president, as occurred after the death of President Reagan and the death of President Ford.

For ten days after the death of a current vice president, chief justice, or speaker of the House of Representatives.

From the day of death until interment of an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, a secretary of an executive or military department, a former vice president, or the governor of a state, territory, or possession.

On the day of death and the following day for a Member of Congress.

On Memorial Day until noon.

Federal law requires the flag be flown at half-staff on Peace Officers Memorial Day (May 15), unless that day is also Armed Forces Day. Yearly presidential proclamations also mandate that the flag be flown at half-staff on Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (December 7), and Patriot Day (September 11).

National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service. The date of the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service is traditionally the first Sunday in October.

Any day by Presidential Proclamation. less