# STILL at half-mast? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 25, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128 "2004-06-25T02:31:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/1 "2004-06-25T02:31:04Z")
Reagan died on June 5. That’s NINETEEN DAYS ago. And yet many flags are still flying at half-mast (or is it half-staff?). What the hell? Sure, many people thought he was a great president. But flags only flew at half-mast for a week after 9/11, for God’s sake. He’s dead, not everyone was crazy about him, it was almost 3 weeks ago, let’s put the flags back up to the tops of the poles, people. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/2 "2004-06-25T02:32:49Z")
Bush decreed flags at half-staff for 30 days. I think this is customary for a president’s death. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/3 "2004-06-25T02:33:22Z")
30 days here in NC. Until July 5th IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/4 "2004-06-25T02:33:25Z")
I believe the mandated “half-staff” period declared was 30 days. ---
**Author:** ![usar\_jag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@usar\_jag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usar_jag)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/5 "2004-06-25T02:36:56Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Reagan died on June 5. That’s NINETEEN DAYS ago. And yet many flags are still flying at half-mast (or is it half-staff?). Flags are flown at half-mast for 30 days after the death of a President. On preview, yeah, what they said… ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/6 "2004-06-25T02:41:04Z")
Hell, the flag should have been at half-staff from January 20, 1981, to January 20, 1989. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/7 "2004-06-25T02:42:25Z")
It’s not that the flags are still at half mast that irritates me. It irritates me, and always have, that 99% of the people who fly a flag fly it improperly and without dignity. I don’t care if you’re Wal-Mart or my next door neighbor, you’re meant to take the flag down at night and put it up in the morning. You don’t have to have a bugler, but leaving the poor unfortunate thing up there 24/7 until it’s so faded you can’t SEE the stars and stripes anymore is depressing. [http://www.usflag.org/flag.etiquette.html](http://www.usflag.org/flag.etiquette.html) And I believe it’s USUALLY customary to fly the flag at half-mast from the day of the President’s death until his funeral. I guess Bush thinks it should be up there longer, and that’s his perogative, but it seems…meh. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/8 "2004-06-25T02:45:10Z")
> [@I Love Me](#): > > Bush decreed flags at half-staff for 30 days. I think this is customary for a president’s death. Just FYI…Bush can only decree that flags flying on federal property fly at half staff. The flags on state property because the Govenor so decrees. Private flags? Because the owner wants to. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/9 "2004-06-25T02:48:49Z")
> [@](#): > > I don’t care if you’re Wal-Mart or my next door neighbor, you’re meant to take the flag down at night and put it up in the morning. As long as it’s illuminated it’s fine to leave it up 24/7 ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/10 "2004-06-25T02:53:48Z")
> [@Reeder](#): > > Just FYI…Bush can only decree that flags flying on federal property fly at half staff. The flags on state property because the Govenor so decrees. Private flags? Because the owner wants to. Well… yeah… I mean, he couldn’t decree that _everyone_ flies it at half-staff for a month unless he were a dictator or something. Still, I think it is a suggestion that others do so, too. I wonder if Bush wishes he _were_ a dictator? Oh, golly gee, that’s a question for another thread. Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/11 "2004-06-25T03:05:53Z")
> [@I Love Me](#): > > Bush decreed flags at half-staff for 30 days. I think this is customary for a president’s death. 30 days? Given that (as I said) 9/11 only got a week, 30 days seems totally out of proportion. But, at least my question has been answered… ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/12 "2004-06-25T03:43:57Z")
Actually, 30 days at half-staff had nothing to do with Bush - it’s US law (not custom). See: [http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/4/7.html](http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/4/7.html) Scroll down to (m) - 30 days for the death of a President or former President, 10 days for a VP, Chief Justice of SCOTUS, and some others. Even Nixon got 30 days at half-staff, since he resigned before he could be impeached. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/13 "2004-06-25T10:22:37Z")
Well, shut my mouth. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/14 "2004-06-25T10:31:55Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > Actually, 30 days at half-staff had nothing to do with Bush - it’s US law (not custom). See: > > [4 U.S. Code § 7 - Position and manner of display | U.S. Code | US Law | LII / Legal Information Institute](http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/4/7.html) > > Scroll down to (m) - 30 days for the death of a President or former President, 10 days for a VP, Chief Justice of SCOTUS, and some others. > > Even Nixon got 30 days at half-staff, since he resigned before he could be impeached. Impeachment wouldn’t have mattered. Clinton, who was impeached, will also get the 30 days. (Incidentally, the title is Chief Justice of the United States, not of the Supreme Court.) ---
**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/15 "2004-06-25T14:03:04Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > flags are still flying at half-mast (or is it half-staff?). I was taught that it’s half-staff on land; half-mast on a ship. However, my dictionary (Webster’s II New College) claims they’re synonymous. ---
**Author:** ![Genghis\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/45deac/32.png) [@Genghis\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Genghis_Bob)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/16 "2004-06-25T14:11:46Z")
[QUOTE=Liberal] Impeachment wouldn’t have mattered. Clinton, who was impeached, will also get the 30 days. . . QUOTE] Right. It’s not the impeachment, it’s the conviction and subsequent removal from office, that matters. So, if Clinton had been removed from office, would he then forfeit the 30 days? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/17 "2004-06-25T14:36:07Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > Hell, the flag should have been at half-staff from January 20, 1981, to January 20, 1989. LOL! Perhaps the best laugh I’ve ever gotten was on-line, in the People Connection chat area of AOL predecessor PC-Link late in 1989, as part of an online realtime trivia game (Type in the answer to the trivia question within 30 seconds of the question hitting your chat screen for points). The question was: “When and on what network did Ronald Reagan star in _Death Valley Days_?” The accurate answer was something like, “CBS, 1960-1964” (I didn’t look it up, and it’s been 15 years). So immediately after a string of answers from those participating, I typed in: “Also USA, 1981-1989” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/18 "2004-06-25T15:30:47Z")
[QUOTE=Genghis Bob] > [@Liberal](#): > > Impeachment wouldn’t have mattered. Clinton, who was impeached, will also get the 30 days. . . QUOTE] > > Right. It’s not the impeachment, it’s the conviction and subsequent removal from office, that matters. > > So, if Clinton had been removed from office, would he then forfeit the 30 days? Ok, I should have written “Nixon resigned before he could be removed from office.” How would that have affected the flag? I’d guess that according to the law, he’d still get the full 30 days, since he was still a former President. However, [section 10](http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/4/10.html) of the same code says the President can change the law at will, so the current President could pretty much do anything he wants - including reducing the period for a former Pres. who was kicked out of office in disgrace. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/still-at-half-mast/252128/19 "2004-06-25T20:54:39Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > But flags only flew at half-mast for a week after 9/11, for God’s sake. Flags flew at half-staff from September 11 through sunset on September [22](http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010914-7.html). Bush has also in response to a joint resolution of Congress declared each September 11 since then to be “Patriot Day,” issuing proclamations directing that government flags be flown at half-staff that day and encouraging private flag owners to fly them at half-staff as well. [Patriot Day 2002](http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020904-10.html) [Patriot Day 2003](http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/09/20030904-7.html) So be patient, it’ll be up to 30 days for 9/11 in 2019.