We seem to be more concerned about protecting and celebrating the flag than we are about protecting and celebrating our fellow human beings.
There is a word for that: Idolatry.
Facing the flag, remaining silent and reverent, taking a knee… are all a show of respect. Displaying a giant flag horizontally on a football field or racetrack and ‘shaking it’, using the flag in advertising, wearing the flag at country music concerts, flying tattered flags, decorating the flag with eagles and political slogans… are all violations of an unenforced flag code. That’s being disrespectful.
Have you ever considered that many of the people who spit on soldiers and called them names during the Vietnam Era are the very ones trying to give lessons in patriotism to Colin Kaepernick and anyone who agrees with him? Haven't you ever wondered what happened to all those hippies? It always been my suspension that once the draft ended, and Carter and Ford forgave the draft dodgers, that most of them took their college draft deferments and joined the Republican Party (Nugent, Limbaugh, Cheney, TRUMP, etc.).
When did kneeling become a sign of disrespect? Don't we kneel when we propose, don't we kneel when we pray, don't we kneel when we visit a grave site of a loved one, don't coaches have their players gather around and kneel when they want to speak to them as a group. In the Army when the drill sergeant or CO called you around to give you information wasn't it common for him to tell you to take a knee?
During the second Iraq war when a company commander and his troops were approaching an area of conflict and there was a mosque in the area and civilians were out in front to protect the site, the commanding officer to show respect and non-aggression towards the mosque, told his men to take a knee. Disrespect?
In recorded history kneeling or taking a knee was seen as a great sign of respect even more so than bowing to lords, master, potentates, kings, popes, and generals.
So why is it that all of a sudden a young man who takes a knee is considered a sign of disrespect. What is it about his taking a knee that in spite of his stated reasons and intentions he is vilified. All of this is overlooked, ignored or not recognized by those who choose to view his action through a narrow lens.
He was not taking a knee to protest the national anthem, he was taking a knee during the national anthem to protest social injustice, and to bring attention to social injustice.
Personally, there are things in the national anthem that do deserve criticism… the glorification of war, the condemnation of enslaved blacks fighting for their freedom, the endorsement of slavery. Read all the verses.
As a son of a veteran, a nephew of seven veteran (veterans of World War II and Korea), the brother and brother-in-law of veterans, and a veteran myself, I do not see any disrespect in this man's choice to kneel.
I do not claim to speak for any of these veterans other than myself, but I know that we all took the same oath and it was not to protect the constitutional rights of just the people we wanted to be protected, nor was it to protect the constitutional rights that we favor. We took an oath to defend and protect the Constitution and therefore all the constitutional rights of everyone not just ourselves, our preconceived opinions, or changing opinions, but all opinions.
Glenn Littrell
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