Why Are U.S. Flags At Half-Staff In Texas Today?

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• Flags Back Up On Friday
• Texas Flag At Full-Staff
• Half-Staff vs Half-Mast

U.S. Flags have been ordered to be at half-staff in Texas and throughout the U.S. today and the remainder of this week in honor of Senator Dianne Feinstein. President Joe Biden ordered the action out of "respect for the memory" of Feinstein.

Flags will be flown at half-staff until sunset on the day of Feinstein's interment, which is Friday. The Texas flag is at full-staff today.

I hadn't heard any reason for the flags to be flown at half-staff when I saw this TikTok video. This was the second time that I noticed it was at half-mast, and I had to look it up.

Here you quickly see the U.S. flag at half-mast, not half-staff, because it's on a boat. If you see a flag on land, it's half-staff, and on a boat it's half-mast.

In this instance, it's the Galveston Ferry that takes you to and from Bolivar Beach on the Bolivar Peninsula. If you haven't ridden on this TxDot-operated ferry, I don't know if you can call yourself a Texan.

Next time you head to Galveston, find an excuse to spend a couple of hours riding the ferry. The 2.7-mile trip across takes about 18 minutes.

It's just something interesting and free to do. Though I never do, you could even just stay in the car.

That could be comforting for kids with special needs, and they will still be able to say that they rode on a boat that day.