Flag

Rondi Anderson writes in Sunday’s Toronto Star that lowering the flag after each Canadian soldier dies in action is not feasible because it would mean that the flag will be-prominently at half-mast for “next two decades, or more.” This is about as screwed up an argument as they come. This only makes sense if setting the flag half-mast costs a million dollar at a time and takes two battalions to work it. Someone should remind Mr. Anderson that we lower the flag not because it is easy to do but we acknowledge the sacrifice of the deceased made for his or her country. It is the least we can do. The Romans kept the doors to the temple of Mars open as long as the legions are in the fields. The conservatives like to say that they support and remember our soldiers, but now not lower the flag is the way they remember the soldiers. So what if the flag is never at full mast again? It is our government that sends the soldiers into war in our name. We should be like the Romans and have our own reminder of our soldier at war. The families’ mourning is private, but the nation’s is not. The lower of the flag is custom and the decision to go against it is political. Anderson gets it completely wrong. The flag is lowered not out of pity but of respect and remembrance. And along with respect and remembrance we keeps in mind the value of the lives of our soldiers and continue to evaluate the decision of keeping them in the fields. Maybe that is what worries the people who are afraid of the half-mast and the bodies coming home. And that, is not only insulting but deceiving to our soldiers and us all.