Have we forgotten?

Friday morning the girls and I went outside to say the Pledge of Allegiance. They noticed immediately that our flag was flying at half staff and wanted to know why. I explained, as best one can to three little girls, that we fly the flag at half staff on certain days to show respect for people or events. Then I tried to explain about that awful day on September 11, 2001 when the "bad men" killed a lot of innocent people. I was choked up and trying not to cry as I looked for words to explain terrorism to small children -- and in a way that would not make them fearful of it happening to them. September 11, 2001 is a day that will be locked in my memory forever.

As we finished our school day on Friday and set off on our field trip to Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead, I explained that everywhere we saw flags on this day they would be flying at half-staff to remember the innocent people who lost their lives. Guess what? As we drove the 30 miles to our destination, I saw only TWO flags lowered. One was at a school and another at a home. I'll bet we saw 25 flags, and only TWO were flying at half staff. Not even churches had lowered their flags. I was, and still am, dismayed. What would it feel like to be the mother or wife or daughter of a 9/11 victim and see that just eight years later people cannot even be bothered to lower their flag to half staff -- such an easy yet overwhelmingly symbolic gesture.

I hope that as the years go by, we Americans do not forget what happened on that day, or on ANY of the days when we should lower our flags in honor of fellow Americans. If you fly an American flag, and you're in doubt about when to lower it, look on the internet. Do not forget what an important and symbolic gesture it is to fly the flag properly. As a mother trying to teach her children about love of others and love of our country, it is important to me that my girls understand the symbolism of the American flag. You can probably imagine how it changed the perspective of three little girls as we set off for the day watching for lowered flags and instead saw that people didn't take the time to fly their American flag at half staff on such an important day.