Flags in Southborough and across the state are flying at half staff for two reasons this week.
As a mark of solemn respect for the victims of tragic school shooting in Florida yesterday, flags are lowered around the nation today through sunset on Monday February 19, 2018. (Scroll down for the Presidential Proclomation.)
This order shall be observed prior to, concurrent with, and following another flag lowering that had been ordered by Governor Charles Baker which calls for the United States and Commonwealth flags to be lowered to half-staff at all state buildings from sunrise until sunset on Friday, February 16, 2018, the day of interment of Private First Class William Becket Kiernan, USMC, of Rochester, MA.
Private Kiernan was a Marine serving on base in California when he was struck ill with a flesh eating disease. He died on February 4, 2018. You can read more about that here.
Here is the Presidential Proclamation Honoring the Victims of the Tragedy in Parkland, Florida:
Our Nation grieves with those who have lost loved ones in the shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. As a mark of solemn respect for the victims of the terrible act of violence perpetrated on February 14, 2018, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, February 19, 2018. I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord two thousand eighteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-second.
DONALD J. TRUMP
(photo from Susan Fitzgerald)
Our flags are at half staff again !, In the meantime I continue to hear gun fire from a distance from local gun clubs, Think about it for a minute
Not everyone with a gun is a criminal. The issue isn’t the gun, it is the person with it. If you think gun control will keep guns out of hands that shoudln’t have them, you are fooling yourself. I don’t have a gun, but I do believe in the right to bear arms. There are some responsible gun owners out there. People go to the gun clubs to shoot guns because they legally can. Thank about that for a minute.
Flying our flag at half staff on President’s Day just isn’t right. – imo