South Carolina sheriff is refusing to lower the American flag in tribute to Nelson Mandela
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(CNN) -- A South Carolina sheriff is refusing to lower the American flag in tribute to Nelson Mandela, saying the honor should be reserved for American citizens.
President Obama ordered flags lowered to half-staff for the international icon until sunset Monday.
But Pickens County Sheriff Rick Clark says not in his department.
"It's just my simple opinion that the flag should only be lowered to half-staff for Americans who sacrificed for their country," Clark told CNN affiliate WHNS.
Pres. Obama reflects on Mandela's impact Obama: Mandela was influential, courageous The five lives of Nelson Mandela Nelson Mandela in his own words
It should be lowered at the U.S. Embassy in South Africa, he said, but not at home.
The flag in his department was lowered over the weekend to honor a fallen law enforcement officer and for Pearl Harbor Day. But it will go right up Sunday morning, he said.
"I have no problem lowering it in South Africa in their country but not for our country. It should be the people who have sacrificed for our country."
Mandela became the symbol of the fight against racial discrimination in South Africa, and served 27 years behind bars for defying the apartheid government. He died Thursday at age 95.
Though rare, the lowering of flags for foreign citizens is nothing new.
George W. Bush did it for Pope John Paul II eight years ago. So did Bill Clinton, when former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in the 1990s.
In fact, the practice goes as far back as 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson ordered flags lowered for former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
But not all world leaders get the honor.
This year, Obama issued a statement expressing his condolences for the death of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. But he did not order the flag lowered.
American presidents can issue the executive order at their discretion, the Flag Code states. In general, presidents reserve the honor for major national figures, including governors and foreign dignitaries.
The code says it's only a guide and it does not offer penalties for noncompliance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX9F-e0wfHA Comments
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This is really not a big deal
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Yeah Mandela not being American is his real problem...
#cavepeoplearesavage -
He probably didn't like the fact that a black president ordered him to honor another black president. Whatever it was, I enjoy stories about crackas in their feelings.
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This is just a way of disrespecting Obama.
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Rubato Garcia wrote: »He probably didn't like the fact that a black president ordered him to honor another black president. Whatever it was, I enjoy stories about crackas in their feelings.
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Sigh...
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Rubato Garcia wrote: »He probably didn't like the fact that a black president ordered him to honor another black president. Whatever it was, I enjoy stories about crackas in their feelings.
White people tears are the best tears. -
white people just being white... why is this news? especially considering that it's only about a cloth symbolic of oppression and genocidal atrocities.
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Y'all ? get upset over every little thing
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since when is turning a blind eye to disrespect something to b proud of?
u don't have to b upset to recognize the insult. -
Crackers gon ?
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passive, appeasing ? got to be the second worse...right behind ? happy uncle tom sellouts
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Smh, I get it, but still... that's ? ? by him
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? be like
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As Ta-Nehisi Coates points out at The Atlantic, National Review founder and editor William F. Buckley wrote in a 1985 column that Nelson Mandela belongs in jail. In the piece, Buckley defends the apartheid government, and argues that white South Africans saw themselves as an endangered minority:
I was in South Africa for the first time in 1962, and it happened that our guide was the son-in-law of Mr. Verwoerd, the then prime minister. The young guide, much taken by the doctrine of apartheid, was -- surprisingly -- very critical of American racial practices, by which he meant Jim Crow in the South, and the systematic deprivation, by Americans, of votes for what we then called Negroes. "I just don't understand it," he said. "What excuse do you people have? You outnumber the Negroes by 10 to one. Our problem is entirely different. They outnumber us by six to one." We need to understand that white South Africans see their society as one that would not survive one-man-one-vote.
The distinguishing element of conservative thinking on race is the belief that, at any given moment, the balance of actual or threatened power is arrayed against whites. The conservative line often concedes that whites may have sinned against blacks in the past, and may even continue to do so, but that at the present moment the risk lies in taking things too far in the opposite direction.
Officially, the goal of the Reagan administration was to end apartheid. But its behind-the-scenes work revealed a startling degree of comfort with the South African regime -- or at least ignorance of how apartheid worked. For a July 1986 speech to the World Affairs Council in Washington D.C., Reagan rejected a moderate State Department draft and instead instructed his speechwriter, Pat Buchanan, to draft a version arguing that Mandela's African National Congress (ANC) employed "terrorist tactics" and "proclaims a goal of creating a communist state." (Buchanan later dismissed Mandela as a "train-bomber" and defended the hardline position.) Reagan himself never seemed to really understand the moral repugnance of apartheid. He described the system in a 1988 interview with ABC's Sam Donaldson as "a tribal policy more than ... a racial policy."
Conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation vocally opposed the 1986 anti-apartheid act. The American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization of conservative state legislators that often produces draft legislation, also put out literature discouraging sanctions on South Africa.
Some of the country's most high-profile conservatives, including Grover Norquist, Jack Abramoff, and now-senator Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) were also advocates for apartheid-era South Africa.
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Llewelyn Rockwell (libertarian) said similar things about Mandela.
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Continued excerpts:
Not to mention ? Cheney... -
Rubato Garcia wrote: »He probably didn't like the fact that a black president ordered him to honor another black president. Whatever it was, I enjoy stories about crackas in their feelings.
Fixed. -
LOL@ lowering the flag for people who served the country. He meant white America. them crackas like that dead deputy ain't did shot for me or the country.
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Are we even remotely surprised? There are millions and I do MILLIONS of racist ass white folks who are damn near going crazy everytime they see Nelson Mandela anywhere.
Plus, this is SC... -
Sounds like the Sheriff was in the wrong.
http://www.homeofheroes.com/hallofheroes/1st_floor/flag/1bfb_disp4.html
Displaying the Flag at Half-Staff
There are four specific occasions during which the flag of the United States is flown at half-staff, or at the mid-way point of the staff or pole to which it is attached:
Memorial Day
Peace Officers Memorial Day
At the Direction of the President
At the Direction of a State's Governor
Q. Is the flag only flown at half-staff in respect to the memory of U.S. citizens?
NO. The president can direct that the flag be flown at half-staff as a symbol of respect for other officials and foreign dignitaries.
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Send in the 101st Airborne Division
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Jim Crow South = Apartheid South Africa...
This is no surprise -
Joker Soprano wrote: »Y'all ? get upset over every little thing
I agree.
And whether its his real reason or not, it's a valid reason.
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Darth Sidious wrote: »Sounds like the Sheriff was in the wrong.
http://www.homeofheroes.com/hallofheroes/1st_floor/flag/1bfb_disp4.html
Displaying the Flag at Half-Staff
There are four specific occasions during which the flag of the United States is flown at half-staff, or at the mid-way point of the staff or pole to which it is attached:
Memorial Day
Peace Officers Memorial Day
At the Direction of the President
At the Direction of a State's Governor
Q. Is the flag only flown at half-staff in respect to the memory of U.S. citizens?
NO. The president can direct that the flag be flown at half-staff as a symbol of respect for other officials and foreign dignitaries.
This idiot looks like an even bigger idiot. His opinion counts for nothing. Just lower the damn flag and do as you are told as you are insignificant and don't even know why the flag is lowered to begin with.
