Flag Disrespect?

On Friday, with a little prodding, Mercy Woodstock Medical Center lowered its flags, in accordance with the directive from the governor's office to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who had been assassinated 40 years earlier. Surely, some manager at Mercy Woodstock is on the email distribution list from the State of Illinois that instructs when and why to lower flags and when to raise them.

The United States Flag Code grants the authority for the governors of the States to order the lowering of the U.S. Flag under certain, very limited circumstances.

The flags were lowered some time after I called, which was after I had passed by in the morning and had seen the flags flying proudly at full-staff. But, apparently, no one anticipated the need to raise the flags at sunset. Well, duh.... When you lower the U.S. Flag, shouldn't someone be asking 1) When do we put the flag back up? and 2) Who is going to put it back up? Of course, it would be nice to inform the person that the responsibility for raising the flag has been assigned to him...

On Saturday, when the flags were still at half-staff, I called Mercy Woodstock. My request that the flags be restored to full-staff was received with some reluctance, and I was told that the person who handles the flags was off on Saturday. Well, so what? Is the U.S. Flag not more important than an hour of overtime pay for him to come in and raise the flag? Was he even called? Or was an "executive" decision made to leave the U. S. Flag at half-staff until Monday?

On Sunday morning, I passed by again and the U.S. Flag was still at half-staff. Mercy Woodstock is closed on Sunday, but Mercy Urgent Care was open. They agreed to page the weekday maintenance staff.

Respect for the Flag too often goes right out the door, along with most other displays of respect. Unfortunately, the U.S. Flag Code has no teeth in it. It's a "Wouldn't it be nice if..." piece of work that includes no penalties for non-compliance.

I wonder what would happen if a few citizens just went over and raised the flag...