At the risk of sounding less than patriotic, a few observations need to be said out loud, and they, so far as I can tell, merit serious discussion. Please try not making it personal. Thanks. In response to a professional football player here in the US recently refusing to stand during the national anthem, and to every time someone steps on a flag or burns one in a video, people can't seem to help themselves but blurt out 'people are dying every day defending that flag'. My question to that, is where? Where is that happening? To my knowledge, all the wars we have today are over resources and geography and ownership rights on who gets to treat what people like what type of cattle. To my knowledge, the battle 'for the flag' was quite settled in 1783. Aspects of what the flag stand for are still fought over today, through political channels and in forums like this, but are people honestly dying for them, now, every day? Don't get me wrong. I understand that people may have a deep emotional connection to this object, made of cloth, possibly manufactured in places far distant from here, and container of many high ideals. That doesn't make feelings into facts. The odd thing though is that when someone utters those words, within their same list of the usual talking points, they often recognize the person in question 'having the right to do such a thing, that someone else died for them to have', which is a similar but slightly different than the one in this post. So, tell me also, if you believe this, that people died for them to have the right, where do you get off complaining about them exercising that right? If people died for them to have that right and they're exercising that right, aren't you in the wrong for condemning them for doing so? Aren't you in the wrong trying to suppress the activity so many died for? Lastly, tell me how these various media making a stink about these events, be they FoxNews or some near-view-less-blog, is not the media doing the exact same thing as the people they report on: using something supposedly sacred being disrespected to incite outrage. Which is the worse event, burning a flag, or repeatedly showing the footage of it, over and over again, to get an audience to organize and possibly retaliate because of it? Ignoring the flag burning would have taken away all it's power, and FoxNews viewers could have just gone on with their lives, none the wiser. The basketball player got his message spread further than if these media outlets had just ignored it. I'm not saying you have to like or accept the messages of those who disrespect the flag. The ideas we like don't need the protection of the first amendment. Just that maybe, you could recognize the media is doing the same thing, becoming complicit in sharing that message and deciding you make a willing pawn. And maybe, if you've got enough outrage to spare to buy a jersey, solely for the point of making a video of burning that jersey, that you could, possibly, also find a way to shower some of that distaste and contempt on the media as well. Unless you enjoy your 'news' making you mad, over and over again. Are you enjoying it? Are you entertained? Looking forward to thoughtful responses.
People take it for granted what a great country we have. This football player would still be in Africa running from lions if we didn't enslave his ancestors.
The US Flag represents our ideals as a nation. Whether we have actually met those ideals is not relevant, it is the hope of what we can be. When people say that there are people dying for the Flag they mean that people are dying for our ideals of peace, liberty, and individual freedom. Our Flag represents our people, our nation, our constitution, all that is wrong and all that is good, this was immortalized in the Star Spangled Banner where it wasn't the troops dying but that "Our Flag Was Still There". When you stomp on the flag or burn it or refuse to recognize it you are giving the middle finger to me, and to all those that have existed, suffered, and thrived in this nation from the slaves to the Donald Trumps.
I understand your point of view. I know I can't challenge what you believe, but I have to be honest and say I see a great disparity between those ideals that soldiers are supposed to be fighting for(peace, liberty, freedom) and the clear and apparent purpose, designs and ends of the wars themselves (resources, regime change, land management, etc). Let's keep in mind that this football player, wasn't saying anything about wars or soldiers. He seems to have only addressed some of the bad things the flag has come to be associated with, which have nothing to do with soldiers or what they do or believe or their motivations. It wasn't about you unless you're a white cop who got away with murdering an unarmed black person. or a judge or police department that exonerated or just gave a little slap on the wrist to one of those cops. I don't know if this was the best way to express himself, but I do recognize a valid gripe. We don't know each other personally, and I mean you no malice, no disrespect or even upset when I tell you, if you're not one of those cops or judges or police officials, don't take it personally, even if it boils your blood in the slightest. This wasn't about soldiers, and what is happening in that area of militarized police and abuse of authority and excessive force and murder, needs to be talked about, even if it takes stunts like this to make that conversation happen, and this conversation is going to happen, whether we like it or not.
