A very resonant FB post,

[G_j]

https://www.facebook.com/michael.sand.129/posts/10209994259472453

I’ve seen a lot of posts over the last 24 hours regarding “respecting the flag” and what that means…and how athletes who use their public forum to voice dissent are somehow “unpatriotic”. I want to offer a different opinion.

My father is buried at the foot of the flagpole in Golden Gate National Cemetery. He landed at Normandy, fought at the Battle of the Bulge and liberated Nazi camps in Germany. His enemy was fascism. I served as a Green Beret in the early 1970s (pretty sure you all know what that entails). Our enemy at the time was communism. My son is currently a serving officer in the Army, who on his dress blues wears the Bronze Star he was awarded during a year-long tour in Afghanistan. His enemy is and was the Taliban and the threat of terrorism.

Three generations of my family, serving the USA, in harms’ way. Three vastly different enemies, but enemies who shared one common trait. ALL of them stifle free speech. All of them bully, degrade and terrorize those who hold opposing views and who peacefully express them. All of them are intolerant and demand “loyalty” to the leader.

I can tell you, speaking for three generations of my family, it is PRECISELY for men like Kaepernick, and his right to peacefully protest injustice, that we were willing to serve. There is NOTHING more respectful of our country than living up to its ideals. There is nothing more patriotic than to say “I’m concerned with injustice, and will use my position to try and address it.”

Want to know what’s unpatriotic? Using your white privilege to avoid serving, citing “bone spurs in the heel” while playing varsity tennis at college while others went. Want to know what is antithetical to American values? Using the most powerful pulpit in the land to incite violence – against ANYONE. Want to define disgraceful behavior? Denigrating a man like Senator John McCain’s service and heroism while you sat home.

Want to respect the American flag? Then respect the ideals for which it stands. Bullying language and calling peaceful protesters “sons of bitches” who should be fired aren’t among them.

p..s. anyone wishing to share this, please feel free.

[democrank]

1. So moving

Thank you, G_j.

[TommyCelt]

2. This.

ALL of this.

[MLAA]

3. 3 generations of a family served for our free speech, wow. Thank you.

[Wounded Bear]

4. The flag is a piece of cloth, it's the Constitution we swore to uphold and defend...

Veteran here, with 3 brothers who served in various capacities, 2 of them in Vietnam.

Agree fully. If I didn't serve to defend someone's right to peacefully protest injustice, why did I serve? I don't like the answers that many on the right give.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Yes. The flag is a symbol only. The Constitution is power to the people and an ideal. . . nt

[ATL Ebony]

5. K&R

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Free speech means defending the speech that you don't like coming from others.

If their speech is not free, then your speech is not free either.

For me to be free, you must be free and they (everyone else) must be free too.

Otherwise all liberties are imperiled.

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.

[maryellen99]

9. I think a lot of these pro flag/anthem people are hypocrites

The same ones who are yelling that the football players should be fired were the ones who said Paula Deen shouldn’t have been fired from Food Network.

[Beartracks]

22. And I doubt they heft their asses off the couch and stand for the anthem. n/t

[sarge43]

8. This veteran says "Stop right f*cking now hiding behind me,

my husband, his father and brother, members of my family from great great grandpa to great nephew. You are using all of us and everyone who has served and is serving to cover your fear and hatred of black Americans who are fed up with being treated as though they don't matter.

The "taking of a knee" was not an insult to any of us or our flag or our national anthem. It was petitioning the government for a redress of grievances. A right guaranteed by the Constitution. We all take an oath to that Constitution and we know what it means.

Here's what we find insulting: Demeaning a Gold Star mother, a former POW, victims of combat PTSD, a CinC acting like war is a school yard pissing contest.

So knock off your butt hurt and stop using us.

[G_j]

17. point well taken

Last edited Tue Sep 26, 2017, 05:48 PM - Edit history (1)

and it is just like Trump to cynically use the military to push his own unpatriotic narrative.

[sarge43]

20. Thank you n/t

[dae]

10. Kicked, Recommended, Bookmarked, and thank you!

[mehrrh]

11. perfect

He has the right to speak and he fought for others to have that right.
His words are powerful.

[raven mad]

12. Went there.

Shared.

[Honeycombe8]

13. Well said. nt

[BadgerMom]

14. K and R

[imanamerican63]

15. Thank you for your family's dedication and service.

I am Vet, not wartime. I absolutely agree with you.

[Wounded Bear]

16. The most difficult thing about freedom is allowing it in others...nt

[Angry Dragon]

19. nice

[Angry Dragon]

18. Trump is a bully -------- he is the enemy

[G_j]

21. K

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

23. The sad thing is that as moving and reasonable as this is,

it will not phase RWers. Hopefully some who are on the fence, but RWers are not open to reason. They have their bigoted, emotional opinions, and they are not hearing any argument against what they believe no matter how sensible truth-filled. Which is, I think, may be our unstoppable downfall.

A whole segment of the population, far larger than any in the past, simply does not wish to think past their ingrained prejudices and has their own set of chosen lies they call "facts."

[Paka]

24. K&R

So well stated. Thanks for posting. I have already shared. It needs to keep moving.