Half-Staff or Half-Assed Redux

Yesterday, on the same day that a gunman killed and wounded dozens of victims at Virginia Tech, President George W. Bush issued a presidential proclamation that flags should be flown at half staff as a “mark of respect” for the victims.

As I pointed out in September 2005 in posts titled “Half-Staff or Half-Assed” and “Did the Proclamation Have to Be Requested, Too?”, six days elapsed between the time Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast and the proclamation honoring the dead in that disaster. This chart from the latter post links to a series of similar proclamations.

This is a compilation of presidential proclamations ordering flags to be flown at half-mast, from the White House’s “Proclamations issued by President Bush”:

Event

Event Date

Proclamation Date

Elapsed Days
Death of Thousands in 9/11 Terrorist Attack
11 Sep 2001
Tuesday

12 Sep 2001
Wednesday
1
Death of Former Senate Majority Leader Michael Mansfield

05 Oct 2001
Friday

05 Oct 2001
Friday
0
Death of Former Supreme Court Justice Byron White

15 Apr 2002
Monday

17 Apr 2002
Wednesday
2
Death of the Columbia Shuttle Astronauts

01 Feb 2003
Saturday

01 Feb 2003
Saturday
0
Death of Senator Strom Thurmond

26 Jun 2003
Thursday
30 Jun 2003
Monday
4*
Death of Bob Hope

27 Jul 2003
Sunday

28 Jul 2003
Monday
1
Death of President Ronald Reagan

05 Jun 2004
Saturday

06 Jun 2004
Sunday
1
Death of Hundreds of Thousands in Asian Tsunami

26 Dec 2004
Sunday

01 Jan 2005
Saturday
6**
Death of Pope John Paul II

02 Apr 2005
Saturday

02 Apr 2005
Saturday
0
Death of Thousands in Hurricane Katrina

29 Aug 2005
Monday


04 Sep 2005
Sunday

6***
Death of Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist

03 Sep 2005
Saturday

04 Sep 2005
Sunday
1

* Apparently, no love for Strom.
** Technically, since the earthquake took place on Sunday morning in the Indian Ocean, the tsunami struck late Saturday (25 December 2005) Washington time. And it didn’t strike US soil, although a number of Americans died in the disaster.
*** Katrina hit the coast on Monday morning, but since many of the victims in New Orleans may not have drowned or died from neglect for several days, the number of days elapsed would vary. Some people likely died from results of the storm as he signed the proclamation — and afterward.