My daddy (and his dad, and my mom's dad, and three out of the four men in the next generation, as well as other uncles) are all former military. Our flag is not at half-staff because it does not GO to half-staff. It goes up, or it goes down.

thetalady, if you're that upset, why don't you call the police and ask them to enforce that law?

Guess I haven't seen any flags not at half staff. At least the ones that can be lowered.

Do you have the kind of flag that people put over garage or front doors?

Sorry. I think I have to add a third category to "disrespect" and "stupid."

The category would be "blissfully unaware."

Hey, not everyone was in the Boy Scouts.

No, we have the type of flag that gets mounted off your house or mailbox, which is also what we have at our second house. The flag is on the pole, the pole goes into a mount. I'm sure that my father wouldn't be flying the flag if he felt it violated protocol - like I said, he's served in the military (and he was an Eagle Scout :p) so he obviously has reason to believe it's okay.

I figure our police officers have plenty of more important things to do, what with homicide, burglary, and drunk driving, etc.

Besides, it is so much fun to see the shock slowly cross their faces when they realize that they should have lowered the flag days ago. You can almost see them thinking "Oh shit!" ;)

I feel that the flags should be lowered. I agree that some people couldn't get them lowered, or were gone for the weekend, etc, but it does bother me if people deliberately do not lower the flag because they disliked Reagan. It's about respecting a great leader, honoring his memory, and trying to comfort his family and the nation, not politics. And yes, there are plenty of idiots out there who have no idea what's going on in the world and that's why they haven't lowered the flag.

I do encourage everyone to gently remind their neighbors and local businesses about the flag-thing. It's very possible that they just genuinely forgot.

I agree with that, however, as I was coming to work this morning I did see a flag flying at full staff at the building of a major, nationally known company headquarters.

On closer inspection, it was attached at the top of the staff, and there was a ring on the bottom of the flag itself. In other words, there was no rope running to the bottom -- and no apparent way to display it half way up the structure.

So, the question is, would you rather see the flag displayed the only way it seems to be able -- or have the company take it down and not display it at all for the next month?

I've given this no real thought, but my snap judgement is that former President Regan would rather see the flag displayed -- no matter where it is on the staff.

We don't have a flag at my house, but if we did, it sure would have been lowered. I haven't seen one flag lowered...and I think it's a little sad.