Team Christie? lowering the flag for Whitney & Clarence from the E Street band, ignoring fallen Marine from NJ...
NJ gov strongly defends lowering flags for Houston
By BETH DeFALCO | Associated Press - 8 hrs agoRelated Content
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FILE- In this Oct. 28, 2006, file photo, singer Whitney Houston arrives at the 17th ...
The Republican governor said Wednesday that he rejects complaints that Houston "forfeited the good things that she did" because of her struggles with substance abuse.
"What I would say to everybody is there but for the grace of God go I," he said.
Christie ordered flags flown at half-staff at state government buildings Saturday, the day funeral services are held for Houston at the Newark church she sang at as a child.
Twitter was abuzz Wednesday with reaction to the decision by Christie, whose home is in Mendham, a wealthy town where Houston also had lived.
In online postings, there were two main arguments against the honor for the Grammy Award winner who died over the weekend in California at age 48: One was that it should be reserved for members of the military, first responders and elected officials. The other was that it's wrong to honor a drug addict.
Heather Clause, a Richmond, Va.-based blogger who writes about teen moms and was tweeting critical comments, said in a telephone interview that she was appalled by the planned flag-lowering.
"It's just such a bad example for people," said 23-year-old Clause. She said the decision was like saying if someone sings well, drug use doesn't matter and "you can still be an idol."
In upstate New York, Rebecca Eppelmann, a newspaper copy editor, also tweeted her disgust at the Houston honor, then discussed her views.
"It should be for major events," she said. "It's horrible that she passed away. It's not something that should warrant this."
Christie said he was not saying that Houston, who was born in Newark and was raised in nearby East Orange, is a role model. Instead, he said, Houston deserves the honor because of her huge cultural impact and as "a daughter of New Jersey."
"I am disturbed by people who believe that because her ultimate demise - and we don't know what is the cause of her death yet - but because of her history of substance abuse that somehow she's forfeited the good things that she did in her life," said the governor during a briefing in northern New Jersey. "I just reject that on a human level."
The cause of Houston's death at a Beverly Hills hotel has not been determined, and the results of toxicology tests are pending. Investigators found several bottles of prescription medication in the hotel room where she died Saturday, but authorities said they weren't an unusually large number.
The governor noted he has ordered flags flown at half-staff for all 31 fallen New Jersey soldiers and every fallen police officer during his time in office.
He also ordered flags lowered last year for Clarence Clemons, the saxophonist for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.
In Newark, residents were irritated to hear of criticism of the governor's decision to honor Houston, who acknowledged her drug abuse in interviews.
Resident Anna Simpson said she admires Christie for honoring Houston because "if it were Bruce Springsteen or Jon Bon Jovi, nobody would bat an eye."
Simpson was at New Hope Baptist Church Wednesday, where Houston's funeral will be held, to pay her respects on her way home from her airport job.
"She never forgot where she came from," Simpson said. "She was real. We would see her and be like, 'She's one of ours,' and she always made us proud, no matter what happened."
After Houston became famous she continued to make regular trips to the public school she attended in East Orange and to which her family has directed donations be sent in lieu of flowers.
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Associated Press writer Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield, N.J., contributed to this report
I agree with lowering the flag for the celebrities as long as they don't forget the military as well.
Why do you think Christie has done it twice for celebrities and 0 times for fallen NJ Military?
Quoting 4kidz916:
I agree with lowering the flag for the celebrities as long as they don't forget the military as well.
I have no idea. I'm not from NJ and don't know that much about him but I do think it's wrong on many levels to leave out the ones making the sacrifice for us.
Quoting sweet-a-kins:Why do you think Christie has done it twice for celebrities and 0 times for fallen NJ Military?
Quoting 4kidz916:
I agree with lowering the flag for the celebrities as long as they don't forget the military as well.
Guess you skipped over this sentence? Or did you ignore it and have some proof it's not correct?
The governor noted he has ordered flags flown at half-staff for all 31 fallen New Jersey soldiers and every fallen police officer during his time in office.
Quoting sweet-a-kins:Why do you think Christie has done it twice for celebrities and 0 times for fallen NJ Military?
Quoting 4kidz916:
I agree with lowering the flag for the celebrities as long as they don't forget the military as well.
A review of more than two decades of executive orders shows the honor of a half-staff flag has not been limited to soldiers and first responders in New Jersey, though it doesn’t appear to have been done for entertainers before Clemons.
Flag orders have been issued for political leaders ranging from presidents and U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy to Barbara Boggs Sigmund, a Princeton mayor. In 1992, then-Gov. James Florio ordered flags lowered for two weeks when Richard Hughes, a former governor and state Supreme Court chief justice, died.
Civil rights activists Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks were honored. Flags were ordered lowered by then-Gov. Richard Codey for Pope John Paul II in 2005.
And flags were also ordered to be flown at half-staff after Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 tsunami and mass shootings at Virginia Tech and Fort Hood.
I did miss that,,,there was a marine who passed from NJ...and thats what started some poeple in NJ complaining...I will find his name
Quoting DSamuels:
Guess you skipped over this sentence? Or did you ignore it and have some proof it's not correct?
The governor noted he has ordered flags flown at half-staff for all 31 fallen New Jersey soldiers and every fallen police officer during his time in office.
Quoting sweet-a-kins:
Why do you think Christie has done it twice for celebrities and 0 times for fallen NJ Military?
Quoting 4kidz916:
I agree with lowering the flag for the celebrities as long as they don't forget the military as well.
And all of that was done BEFORE Christie was gov, so I don't see the point. But to say he has done in for 0 military is either wrong or he is lying. To quote you: PROOF
Quoting sweet-a-kins:
A review of more than two decades of executive orders shows the honor of a half-staff flag has not been limited to soldiers and first responders in New Jersey, though it doesn’t appear to have been done for entertainers before Clemons.
Flag orders have been issued for political leaders ranging from presidents and U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy to Barbara Boggs Sigmund, a Princeton mayor. In 1992, then-Gov. James Florio ordered flags lowered for two weeks when Richard Hughes, a former governor and state Supreme Court chief justice, died.
Civil rights activists Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks were honored. Flags were ordered lowered by then-Gov. Richard Codey for Pope John Paul II in 2005.
And flags were also ordered to be flown at half-staff after Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 tsunami and mass shootings at Virginia Tech and Fort Hood.
I did miss that,,,there was a marine who passed from NJ...and thats what started some poeple in NJ complaining...I will find his name
Quoting DSamuels:
Guess you skipped over this sentence? Or did you ignore it and have some proof it's not correct?
The governor noted he has ordered flags flown at half-staff for all 31 fallen New Jersey soldiers and every fallen police officer during his time in office.
Quoting sweet-a-kins:
Why do you think Christie has done it twice for celebrities and 0 times for fallen NJ Military?
Quoting 4kidz916:
I agree with lowering the flag for the celebrities as long as they don't forget the military as well.
Clemons died in 2011, Christie was elected in 2009....what happened before?
Clemons is the first ENTERTAINER...
Quoting DSamuels:
And all of that was done BEFORE Christie was gov, so I don't see the point. But to say he has done in for 0 military is either wrong or he is lying. To quote you: PROOF
Quoting sweet-a-kins:
A review of more than two decades of executive orders shows the honor of a half-staff flag has not been limited to soldiers and first responders in New Jersey, though it doesn’t appear to have been done for entertainers before Clemons.
Flag orders have been issued for political leaders ranging from presidents and U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy to Barbara Boggs Sigmund, a Princeton mayor. In 1992, then-Gov. James Florio ordered flags lowered for two weeks when Richard Hughes, a former governor and state Supreme Court chief justice, died.
Civil rights activists Coretta Scott King and Rosa Parks were honored. Flags were ordered lowered by then-Gov. Richard Codey for Pope John Paul II in 2005.
And flags were also ordered to be flown at half-staff after Hurricane Katrina, the 2005 tsunami and mass shootings at Virginia Tech and Fort Hood.
I did miss that,,,there was a marine who passed from NJ...and thats what started some poeple in NJ complaining...I will find his name
Quoting DSamuels:
Guess you skipped over this sentence? Or did you ignore it and have some proof it's not correct?
The governor noted he has ordered flags flown at half-staff for all 31 fallen New Jersey soldiers and every fallen police officer during his time in office.
Quoting sweet-a-kins:
Why do you think Christie has done it twice for celebrities and 0 times for fallen NJ Military?
Quoting 4kidz916:
I agree with lowering the flag for the celebrities as long as they don't forget the military as well.
I'll probably get flamed for this, but I honestly don't understand why they do it for any entertainer. It's not that I don't think that contributions to our culture through entertainment are important, I just don't necessarily think they rise to the level of flying the flag at half staff.
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- sweet-a-kins
on Feb. 16, 2012 at 11:44 AM