Obama Orders Flags at Half Staff - SC Sheriff Defuses.

Hello again ATS.

PotUS Obama ordered all flags to be put at half staff tonight, in honor of Nelson Mandela. This order has it's share of defiance, as one SC Sheriff refused to do such a thing. Sheriff Rick Clark has refused such an order because he feels that this honor should be reserved for Americans only.

SC Sheriff Refuses To Lower Flag For Nelson Mandela

Sheriff Rick Clark told The Greenville News that he has ordered the flag be raised at the end of today because he said the honor of lowering flags to half-staff should be reserved for Americans.

"The flag at half-staff is for Americans' ultimate sacrifice for our country," Clark said. "We should never stray away from that."

Personally, I believe that the reservation for a half staff flag could honor peoples from another country so long as that person deserves the honor and contributes to world peace or something that lifts up this country or the world as a whole. Good deeds should not go unnoticed.

BUT, I do not believe Nelson Mandela deserves such an honor for any reason what so ever. Contrary to what we're being led to believe, he was NOT a good man. It really get's under my skin that Obama would even consider such a thing!

"While we mourn his loss, we will forever honor Nelson Mandela's memory," the president said. "He left behind a South Africa that is free and at peace with itself - a close friend and partner of the United States. And his memory will be kept in the hearts of billions who have been lifted up by the power of his example."

This is appalling! Why on earth would we honor a man that WE as a country, considered a terrorist!?!?!

He was a murderer and a terrorist! He even pleaded guilty to the charges.
3 Things you should know about Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela was the head of UmKhonto we Sizwe, (MK), the terrorist wing of the ANC and South African Communist Party. At his trial, he had pleaded guilty to 156 acts of public violence including mobilising terrorist bombing campaigns, which planted bombs in public places, including the Johannesburg railway station. Many innocent people, including women and children, were killed by Nelson Mandela’s MK terrorists. Here are some highlights

He was placed on that terrorist list by Reagan himself in the 80s.
Don’t Sanitize Nelson Mandela: He’s Honored Now, But Was Hated Then

From their perspective, Mandela’s critics were right to distrust him. They called him a “terrorist” because he had waged armed resistance to apartheid. They called him a “communist” because the Soviet Union was the ANC’s chief external benefactor and the South African Communist Party was among its closest domestic allies. More fundamentally, what Mandela’s American detractors understood is that he considered himself an opponent, not an ally, of American power.

What do you think ATS?

Should the flag posted at half staff only be reserved for Americans?

Do you think that Nelson Mandela deserves such an honor?

I applaud the Sheriff for having the guts to take a very unpopular stand for what sounds like the right logical points, whether someone agrees with him or not.

I DO think Nelson Mandela deserves honor and a strong gesture from the United States. I also think this is exactly the wrong way to do it while lowering the flag becomes a near common gesture. Nothing seems left to function as what this had for national mourning or serious national loss.

In terms of Mandela himself? Well, he's like everyone who has done great things...and yeah, I do think some of his outcomes were great, having seen the tail end of what he'd been a victim of. However, he got there out of real suffering, diversity and being a survivor. Put simply, he had as much a dark side as noble one, as just about everyone of that description would by definition, I'd think.

I'm on the fence on this one.

However today is Pearl Harbor Day, so all flags across the nation should be flown at half mast.

Americans only. Period.

StallionDuck
Should the flag posted at half staff only be reserved for Americans?

A quick search of the internet shows a wide agreement that the American flag can indeed by flown at half mast for non-Americans.
This document by the Department of veterans affairs, as a random example, says

The president may order the flag to be flown at half-staff to mark the death of ... foreign dignitaries.
In addition to these occasions, the president may order half-staff display of the flag after other tragic events.

Previous examples appear to have been Winston Churchill, Gandhi, John Lennon, and Pope John Paul II.

StallionDuck
Do you think that Nelson Mandela deserves such an honor?

No.

America has a habit of changing its mind about who is good and who is bad.

Osama and Saddam being great examples.

Hes dead, whether he was good or bad is now irrelevant as he is beyond our justice or adulation.
If he was bad in life but a positive role model in death I say let it stand.

As for the flag lowering.... meh, who cares either way

reply to post by StallionDuck


The point is to billions of the world’s population and millions of Americans HE WAS A GOOD MAN!

Because your logic, which I think is illogic, says he wasn’t doesn’t make it so.

No great man will please everybody.

Many in America to this day hate Abe Lincoln, therefore we shouldn’t honor him?

Your reason is unreasonable.

Willtell
reply to post by StallionDuck

 

The point is to billions of the world’s population and millions of Americans HE WAS A GOOD MAN!

Because your logic, which I think is illogic, says he wasn’t doesn’t make it so.

No great man will please everybody.

Many in America to this day hate Abe Lincoln, therefore we shouldn’t honor him?

Your reason is unreasonable.

My "logic" is based upon facts. I didn't just wake up and say "Mandela was a bad person". He was a murderer. How can you prove that he was not? He was a terrorist. Again, how can you say he was not? I showed examples and sources. If you will, please show your counter argument.

Seems to me that this is more of a blow back against Obama than having anything to do with Mandela.

I'm so fed up with Obama that I wouldn't want to do anything he "ORDERED"

If Obama ordered every American plant a tree seedling on Arbor day I just might invest in a new chainsaw.

This is a perfect example of the victors (re)write or re-interpret the history. A one time terrorist - communist becomes the freedom fighter.

I support the Sheriff on this. Tell POTUS to go lower his own flag. We should all be flying the American flag upside down anyway.