So. The current national conversation is not how our President is pushing us towards war, nor how once again the Congress is trying to take away health care from the poorest amongst us, nor the horrible hurricanes hitting the gulf coast and Caribbean. Nope...it's about whether or not NFL players should stand during the national anthem. I am so glad (sarcasm) we are focusing on such important things.
Personally, I stand for the flag and the national anthem and the nation as a whole, not for the President or the Congress or anything else. I think there are other, better times for people to protest than this, and the fact that kneeling now seems to have become the 'cool' thing to do makes me suspicious. Considering how much even the wealthy NFL owners have responded negatively to Trump's statement that people who kneel during the anthem are 'sons of bitches', I know that much of what is going on is more about Trump and his persecution complex than anything.
Yet people who kneel or sit during the anthem as a protest against whatever do not bug me nearly as much as the many other ways people disrespect the flag, many actions which are actually against the federal code. This article in the Huffington Post in particular I thought was excellent.
-When dumb rednecks (most are great people, but some are morons) fly the U.S. flag beside the Confederate flag out of the back of their pickup until it is ripped mostly to shreds.
-When politicians use the flag as a lapel pin because they are afraid of what constituents will say if they don't.
-When cheap, disposable plastic flags are passed out like candy at parades even as they will loudly say that they are 'made in China'.
-When businesses use the flag to try to sell things.
-When people put writing or other symbols on the flag to get a political agenda across.
-When people wear flag-themed clothing and they do it very sloppily.
-When people combine images of the flag, screaming eagles, and other quasi-patriotic images to say something along the lines of 'America! Kneel or feel our boot in your ___!'
There are so many instances in which the flag has been abused in ways far worse than in the posture of athletes. Just when I think that our country can't get any dumber, we knock a few points off the 'ol national IQ.
