The NFL players taking a knee are “very disrespectful to our country.”
President Donald Trump (September 30, 2017)
The furor over athletes taking a knee, raising a fist or sitting during the national anthem or people burning the Flag continues unabated, with President Trump fanning the flames those believe that such actions show disrespect for the flag, anthem, country, our men and women in uniform and, recently added to his list, first responders and demonizes everyone who supports the actions or these protesters.
Yet, it is Donald Trump who exhibits disrespect and contempt for the Country and its Constitution, including the rights and liberties it enshrines for all Americans, and in turn, for the sacred national symbols that epitomize those liberties.
The very fact that in America individuals are able to peacefully assemble, petition their government for the redress of grievances, exercise their right of both verbal and non-verbal speech to bring attention to what they see as injustice and even to criticize their government and the president is what “Makes America Great”.
If those self-proclaimed patriots who would tamper with or curb our First Amendment freedoms had their way, our country would be a far different and less free place to live. If such restrictions are critical to their utopian societies, I would suggest they spend time living in countries like North Korea, Eritrea, Turkmenistan, Syria, the Peoples Republic of China, Vietnam, Sudan, Cuba, Laos and Equatorial Guinea (the ten countries Reporters Without Borders most recently cited as the most repressive where freedom of expression and the press are concerned) … where flag burning, demonstrating during the national anthems, protesting the government and/or its leader or even assembling in public can result in arrest, lengthy imprisonment, torture and even death!
Despite Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in protest on the Olympic podium in Mexico in City 1968, the relative handful of flag burning over the past century, recent protests during the playing of the national anthem and other forms of peaceful but controversial protests, America and the liberties its citizens enjoy have survived nicely.
Yes, Mr. President, America remains the greatest nation in the history of mankind; in large part because it tolerates and protects the freedoms of its all of its citizens … which may be intolerable to some!
