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VA under fire for flag recitation policy |
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By Karissa Marcum
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Posted: 11/06/07 07:33 PM [ET] |
Conservative Republicans are taking aim at a Department of Veterans Affairs policy that prevents VA representatives from suggesting that a specific flag recitation be read at burial ceremonies due to its religious tone.
At issue is the VA’s recitation that goes over the 13 steps necessary to fold a U.S. flag, “The Meaning of Each Fold of an Honor Guard Funeral Flag.” Under the old policy, the VA initially presented the reading as an option to families. But the White House recently got a complaint about the 11th step, which references the Old Testament.
The VA then banned the recitations, which caused outcry among conservatives. Last week, the VA announced yet another change in its policy: It would give families the option of having the reading, but only if the families explicitly asked for it.
Conservatives disagree with the move and say VA officials and volunteers should tell families that they can choose to have the recital read at a burial ceremony.
The issue has been a hot topic on conservative and Christian blogs, and the VA has even come under criticism from Vice President Dick Cheney.
“While I am pleased that the VA has backed off its initial misguided policy on the veterans’ flag recitation, I remain concerned that the VA’s change is more sound bite than substance,” said Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), who has written to the VA to criticize the policy.
Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) called the policy “unfortunate” and an “overreaction” to a single complaint. He said families should still be told of the option of having the 13-fold recital read at burial ceremonies.
Conaway said the incident underscores a larger trend of officials taking out references to God from public places and documents. He cited as an example a recent case in which the Architect of the Capitol reversed its policy of removing the word “God” from its certificates, following lawmakers’ criticism.
It was “misguided” for VA to go after the word “God,” Conaway said.
The VA pulled the recitation from burial ceremonies at national cemeteries after a complaint was filed with the White House regarding the reading about the 11th fold at a funeral at the Riverside National Cemetery in Riverside, Calif. The 11th fold states, “The eyes of a Hebrew citizen represents the lower portion of the seal of King David and King Solomon and glorifies, in their eyes, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”
Rep. Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) said the decision about how veterans are honored should be left to the family, not the VA.
“Given the extraordinary sacrifices these men and woman have made, the least we can do is honor them they way in which they wanted to be remembered,” said Bilbray, a member of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.
Garrett said the new policy amounts to censorship and indicates a larger problem.
“The flag-folding flap is part of a larger problem with Washington bureaucrats increasingly asserting themselves into the minutiae of American life — often not only aided and abetted by Congress, but encouraged by them,” he said. “In the case of the flag recitation, a bureaucrat in a cubicle somewhere decided to tell grieving families what they can and cannot do in their own funeral service for a loved one.”
Traditional gravesite military funeral honors include the silent folding and presentation of an American flag, a 21-gun rifle salute and the playing of taps. The VA has also said that volunteer honor guards will accept requests for recitations for any religion. |
