When so many have given or risk their lives just to display the flag as a symbol of freedom and victory against oppression in the USA, the least I can do is stand with my hand over my heart or salute showing respect. It brings tears to my eyes that a rich entitled ignoramus can kneel showing disrespect claiming he is protesting racism in the USA. Has he not studied history and seen the photos of the freed slaves that couldn't wait to hold or fly the flag of freedom? I am trying not to be angry that so many living free see our flag as fascist. The Vietnam war doesn't erase our history or change it in any way. Socialism and communism took over our universities in the 1960's and I stood stunned that anyone would burn a flag because they deemed it fascist. As a child, I was taught to burn a flag if it hit the ground and replace it with a new one flying high. I am considered eccentric because when passing a flying flag on a Federal building or school, I stop and still stand with hand over heart and then salute, before walking on. All my ancestry, American Indian and European Immigrant, were proud to be American, fly and respect the flag. William Harvey Carney and Ira Hayes and many others of all races and ethnic ancestry have risk their life just to fly or hold this symbol of freedom.
I am under no illusions that our country has been a bastion of freedom and justice, or that the people in charge of it even have such intentions. America has been guilty of some pretty evil things throughout its history, and I am sure that it is currently involved in some evil things, foreign and domestic. I am also quite certain that the people we elect to office every four to six years are not the people who are in charge of our government, and that they may indeed be far more helpless to control the nation's agenda than we could ever imagine. That said, I am on our side because this is where I live. Siding with an enemy government is madness. This doesn't mean that I support everything that our government is doing, internally or overseas. I would rather live here than under any of the other failed governments throughout the world. This is what I know, and siding with the enemy just doesn't seem to be in my best interests. Nor is it reasonable to assume the absence of evil in other countries. Without ignoring the evils of slavery, that crime began long before the United States government was formed, yet some of the very powers that brought slavery to this continent think of the American South when they think of slavery. There were also far more slaves in the Caribbean and South America than in North America, yet people look to Mississippi and Alabama. Under the Spanish, the French, and the British, slavery existed in North America for a couple of centuries, yet it ended less than a century after the US government was formed. It still exists in some African and Muslim countries. Yet the world is trained to think of the US South when they think of slavery. While the US government certainly continued the conquest of the indigenous people on this continent, it began long before the US government was formed. For that matter, conquest has defined the history of the human race. Right or wrong, that is what people all over the world have done throughout most of human history. While we should strive to be better, it makes sense to be proud of who we are, whatever that might be, and to be on our own side rather than that of our enemies.
One of the things that is starting to happen now, is that the antifa protestors are said to be targeting homes that are flying the American Flag. There is a big thread about this on Twitter this morning, and people are of mixed ideas on how we should deal with this. If a person lives in one of the cities where there have been the riots and killings, and homes being burned, it is probably a lot safer to take the flags down. You can replace the flag, but not a life if they burn the house down with us inside of it. Bobby has taken down our police -support flag, but not the American flag, after we had someone standing outside of the house this morning, yelling and shouting at Bobby, who was out on the front porch. The conversation replies on twitter are varied for both responses, with some people saying that they are going to get out their weapons and guard their homes, and other people saying that it makes sense not to have your home be a target. We had protests here in Huntsville last night, and apparently, also the odd load of bricks left conveniently in the part of town where the protests were scheduled to take place. The local news reported this, but I think that the police removed the bricks before the protest. They allowed the protests, which were peaceful, but when told to go home, some people would not leave, and the police had to drop tear gas to remove them. We live near the arsenal, and heard the big helicopter overhead, and that was probably there because of the protests.
Well, this ridiculous incident has put the nail in the coffin of the NFL for me. Apparently these comments by Drew Brees are "unacceptable," and he APOLOGIZED for saying this: "I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country," Brees said. "Let me just tell what I see or what I feel when the national anthem is played and when I look at the flag of the United States. I envision my two grandfathers, who fought for this country during World War II, one in the Army and one in the Marine Corp. Both risking their lives to protect our country and to try to make our country and this world a better place. So every time I stand with my hand over my heart looking at that flag and singing the national anthem, that's what I think about. And in many cases, that brings me to tears, thinking about all that has been sacrificed. Not just those in the military, but for that matter, those throughout the civil rights movements of the '60s, and all that has been endured by so many people up until this point. And is everything right with our country right now? No, it is not. We still have a long way to go. But I think what you do by standing there and showing respect to the flag with your hand over your heart, is it shows unity. It shows that we are all in this together, we can all do better and that we are all part of the solution." Apparently free speech no longer applies to white people in this country, and that this is considered inflammatory grinds my oats.