I am a Man of Inquiry

During this seemingly year-long memorial of Gerald Ford, a whole lot of people have their flags at half-mast, and it got me wondering. When are you allowed to put your flag back up all the way? Is there some protocol for the importance of the individual? As a matter of fact, there is.

From Ask a Guru:

When a president or former president dies (or as you so eloquently put it, croaks) the flag must be flown half-mast for thirty days. Ten days for a vice president, chief of justice or a retired chief of justice, or speaker of the house of representatives.

So the amount of time the flags down is firmly established, but there's another interesting tidbit I came across in my research. According to an anonymous source:

To keep the free speech rights of our forefathers intact, there's an written rule about the placement of the flag. Every person who puts up a flag has the right to their own point of view. If they feel the person being memorialized was worthy of their thoughts, they are allowed to place the flag up to three inches higher than the midpoint of the pole (one inch = good, two inches = better, three inches = best). In the same way, if they weren't big fans of the dead, they would lower the flag up to three inches, the difference of inches meaning the same.

Keep that in mind when you're looking at your post office's or fire department's flags. Does the flag seem a little low to you? If you're unsure, take a ruler to the pole. They are obligated, by law, to let you measure it for yourself. They are free to speak their mind, but they have to own up for it too.