Sportwriter Plays Race Card in Reggie White Flag Flap
Christine Brennan, best known for writing snooty figure skating stories, sticks up for Bob Harlan's decision to fly the flag at half staff for Reggie White in USA Today. For those of you who haven't heard, the Packers lowered the US flag flying over Lambeau Field after White's death. Then:
Some veterans questioned the policy of lowering the flag to honor White, saying it violated the U.S. Flag Code, which spells out rules of flag etiquette. The code states that the flag should only be flown at half-staff upon a directive from the president or governor and on Memorial Day, and it reserves the honor for government figures.The vets contended it should only be done when authorized by the government, as when honoring those killed in combat.
In announcing the change on Wednesday, the Packers thanked veterans for making the suggestions that led to the new policy.
Veterans were, I think, understandably upset about honoring White this way in wartime, and Harlan, equal understandably, wasn't up on his flag etiquette. In the future, the Packers will honor people by raising, and then half-lowering, a Packers flag over the stadium. Sounds good to me.
But, of course, some people need to find a more sinister motive behind all of this. Ms. Brennan is one of them:
There likely will never be a certain answer as to the genesis of the national controversy that Harlan and the Packers unwittingly opened this week. Logically, the suddenness of White's death at 43, the shock of the news coming on Christmas weekend, led more people than usual to pay attention to what the Packers were doing with their U.S. flags at Lambeau.Let's hope that is the reason, for there is another that is much harder to stomach. On radio shows, some have mentioned that among those honored by the Packers in this manner, White is the only African-American. I imagine we all can agree that we hope like crazy that is not the reason the flag police spoke up at this moment.
Oh yes, that must be it. Those redneck Green Bay veterans (who probably voted for Bush) are a bunch of racists who can't stomach anyone honoring a black man. Bitch. It's bad enough that White's obituraries slam him, but now some idiots want to use his death to brand these vets as a bunch of racists.
Posted by at December 30, 2004 01:42 PM
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Comments
| # March 7th, 2005 6:48 PM Converted_Comment | |
Bravo!! I couldn't agree more. |
| # March 7th, 2005 6:48 PM Converted_Comment | |
I think you are an irresponsible journalist wanna-be with poor writing skills at best. I read you source articles before formulating an opinion. For your commentary, you took the most incinerary and divisive portions of the article and then ended with you own shallow, race baiting, and demeaning conclusion about one of the greatest men and NFL players of our time. As the source article mentions (and what you failed to include), was then this was the third time, since July that the flags had been lowered in tribute to a deceased member of the Packer organization. All while the war was still raging in Iraq. “We did it for (former team vice president) Mark Hatley and (former assistant coach and scout) John "Red" Cochran. But we did it Sunday for Reggie and the e-mails and calls started coming Sunday afternoon, saying we were wrong, that we can't lower the flag like that."” exerpt from the Brennam article Where were the complaints from the veterans? I guess in the same spot where you journalistic objectivity is stored. It is also apparent that you only mentioned Bush to cast an even deeper dividing line. Everyone in the public eye has bad and inaccurate press. Some of the things Mr. White said then, are some of the very things that got Bush re-elected. |
| # March 7th, 2005 6:48 PM Converted_Comment | |
Dave, I ddin't mention the two prior flag lowering incidents in my post *because* I linked to those facts. By linking to those articles, I feel am I including those facts. I'm not trying to hide anything, if I were I wouldn't have linked to anything. That's the beauty of a blog. In Ms. Brennan's article, where and when did these radio callers say that race might have had to do something with all of this? She doesn't say, does she? Did that happen in Wisconsin or somewhere thousands of miles away? Isn't that an actual example of irresponsible journalism? My take, which I think is implied in my post, is that the lowering of the flag in White's case had a much higher profile. In Brennan's article, she considers this hypothesis as well, but then reaches for the race card. I should have been more explicit in my opinion. I'd be willing to bet that most people didn't even notice that the flag was at half staff for these two lower profile men in the Packer family. Particularly when you think that if they died in July, the flag had already been at half staff for a month for Reagan's death. Finally, I fail to see how anything I wrote rips on Reggie White. White was a great player and man. But, according to the US Flag Code, that doesn't mean you lower the flag for him. There are lots of other ways to honor him which the Packers and their fans will do.
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