Unlike Michigan, Ohio citizens have little way of knowing when one of their own is killed in combat.

Here at the University, members of the Latino Student Union are rallying support from groups on campus to ask Gov. Bob Taft to lower flags to half-staff in honor of soldiers killed in battle.

“We have members that are overseas, and if anything were to happen, we would like to honor them,” said Jeff Nolish, chair of LSU’s Political Action Committee.

One of those LSU members is Jonas Fields. Last spring, Fields was elected vice president of LSU. But Fields had to leave the group when he was called to active duty last fall.

Nolish and Khoury didn’t think that Ohio has good enough ways to honor fallen soldiers.

“The more I looked into it, the more I kind of became passionate about it,” Khoury said.

With that, Maria Khoury wrote a letter to Gov. Bob Taft. Khoury said she wants the Ohio governor to follow the example of Michigan’s governor, who in December 2003 ordered that American flags be lowered to half-staff whenever a Michigan soldier is killed.

Khoury said that because a letter from one student might not be enough to get the governor’s attention, she wanted lots of students to be involved. That’s why Khoury presented the letter to the Undergraduate Student Government at their meeting last Monday.

Khoury thought USG would approve the letter, knowing that a few other senators supported the idea. Among her supporters were Minority Affairs Co-Chair Hector Hernandez, and at large Sens. Bethany Torres and Niki Messmore. But to Khoury’s surprise, it wasn’t that easy.

“I was very disappointed actually,” Khoury said. “There was a lot of opposition to the idea itself. I don’t mean in honoring the fallen soldiers, but just the way that I went about doing this.”

Senators at the meeting last Monday who were against the idea gave various reasons why they felt that lowering the flag for fallen soldiers was a bad idea.

Some senators worried that Ohioans might forget to celebrate the bravery of soldiers who are still fighting.

“I don’t think it’s fair to the soldiers who have not fallen, [because they would] not be recognized properly,” said John Byrd, senator at large.

Sen. at large Melanie Campbell was concerned that the flag might be at half-staff most of the time.

“I’d rather see them honored with something more positive,” Campbell said. “Because I don’t like to think about the negative aspect of the war and I don’t really think anybody else does either.”

Abby Synder, senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, called the idea “extreme.”

Khoury disagreed.

“I don’t agree that it’s extreme. Giving up your life to ensure our safety and freedom is extreme,” Khoury said. “I mean they’re fighting for us, and they’re fighting for the flag. We should be able to respect those people who have fallen and lower the flag in their honor. I think that they deserve that honor.”

Nolish and Khoury were not easily discouraged. Even if USG won’t sign the letter as a group, Nolish and Khoury said they will find other ways to get students involved.

“Whatever negativity or tension that arose,” Nolish said, “I hope that passes and that people are able to discuss the issue for everything [that] it is, which is something very important.”

USG will discuss Khoury’s letter again at their meeting tonight, at 7:30 p.m. in room 113 in Olscamp.

“It doesn’t have be done through USG, it’s just something that I figured it would be nice to do through USG,” Khoury said.

Khoury said that she intends to organize students to lobby to have flags lowered for Ohio soldiers. This could mean petitioning, letter writing campaigns or contacting state representatives.

“This [letter] is just the first thing that we were planning on doing,” Khoury said.

Capt. Rendall Flecher, a spokesperson for BGSU ROTC, said that he won’t be signing any petitions. But that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t think it’s a good idea.

“Generally speaking we [in the ROTC department] support the idea,” Flecher said. “We all have friends and families that are overseas somewhere — not necessarily a combat zone, but overseas somewhere.”

Nolish said that the Black Student Union and NAACP also support the idea.

“So I think that we would go ahead with Maria in a heartbeat,” Nolish said. “I think we’ve considered a lot. But the most important thing to consider is our family, and that’s Jonas.”