Recently our state has experienced several tragic events where our flags have been ordered to be lowered to half-staff. Most recently the death of the Crandall Canyon miners and Camille Cleverley. These events are very sad. But these circumstances do not qualify our flag being flown half-staff.

These events our state has experienced don't qualify our national flag to be flown half-staff. If we were to lower our nations flag every time someone died tragically our flag would never fly full-staff.

When desiring to honor someone who has died, but for whom a half-staff display is not appropriate, the National Flag Foundation recommends adhering to the flag code by lowering private flags to half-staff. We should recognize and honor the death of these people, but let's preserve lowering our nation's flag to half-staff for appropriate circumstances.

John Taylor,

Payson