Father of KIA Soldier Burns NJ Flag in Protest
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I loved Whitney Houston. She was a marvelous singer, a talented entertainer, and a skilled actress. Unfortunately, as is more common than not with superstars, she was deeply troubled.
Her career was stained with drug and alcohol abuse, and a violent and volatile marriage to Bobby Brown. She abused herself to the extent that she lost most of her talented voice.
When I heard about her death I was deeply saddened for a number of reasons, and wished things could have been different for her. I was sad for her family, and particularly for her daughter Bobbi who so distraught she was hospitalized briefly. Like millions of people all over the world I watched the funeral and followed all the news.
On the day the fair haired boy of the Republican party, Governor Chris Christie, ordered that flags, all flags, should be flown half staff to honor Houston I disagreed most vehemently. While a true fan of the singer, I did not consider her a hero, or a role model for America’s young. She never served a day in the Armed Forces, the United States Congress, or as governor of any state. Whitney was a singer, not a veteran.
Clearly Governor Christie has not served in the military. That notwithstanding, however, you don’t need to have served to respect those who have. Evidently Christie does not respect our veterans or the hundreds of thousands of men and women who have been killed in defense or in service of this great nation. Typical of the GOP’s lack of concern for people Christie recklessly declared Houston a “cultural icon” of New Jersey. Perhaps that’s so, but that doesn’t mean the flags should have been lowered to half staff.
Here’s the story of a man who took his disagreement with Christie’s unthinking directive one step beyond just words:
(Newser) – When John Burri heard that New Jersey ordered flags flown at half-staff to honor Whitney Houston, he drove to his local Flags Unlimited store, bought a New Jersey state flag, brought it to his Michigan home, and burned it on his outdoor grill.
“It was $12.95 and it was the best money I ever spent,” says the father of Army Spc. Eric Burri, who was killed in Iraq in 2005. Michigan’s governor ordered that state’s flags flown at half-staff for one day to honor Burri’s son, and it’s an honor that should be reserved for those who died in the line of service, Burri says.
For New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to order the same honor for Houston is “a slap in the face,” Burri tells the Detroit News. “It cheapens the meaning of lowering that flag. They’re watering down the meaning of a hero.” His action was a legal one, a law professor notes, since the Supreme Court has ruled that the burning of a US flag is constitutionally protected speech—and those decisions would also apply to state flags. Christie was criticized by others for his decision, but he defended it last week, calling Houston a “cultural icon” of whom New Jersey residents are proud.
I grieve with this father for the loss of his son, and am disturbed that his memory, and that of so many others, was dishonored by the ill considered order of Governor Chris Christie.
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Yet here you have it, an admittedly blessed and wonderful talent such as Ms. Houston being given the respect of a two-block radius perimeter of privacy, while the families of everyday soldiers must be subjected to hearing the venomous spewings of a selective and duplicitous self-serving cult who are afforded this twisted ability under the right to free speech banner. The free speech I might add, won by the lives of the very soldiers towards whom the Westboro odoriferous barbs are directed.
While I personally would not burn a flag I can, given the above, understand why this Michigan father would. (http://wp.me/p1h552-fD)
When this was first announced, I figured Christie would change his mind. Half staff is almost scared in this country, and I agree with you on this one. This was not an appropriate moment for flags at half staff. I ache for that father’s loss.