While eating with another couple the other night, both of them expressed anger at football players who kneel during the national anthem.
Why did they kneel? To protest violence against certain groups.
Why were my friends angry? Because it was disrespectful to the flag and the nation.
Disrespect? I said it sounded more like making a statement, something protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the US of A.
No, they said, it’s disrespectful to not stand and salute the flag.
Ah, the flag, I said. I asked them if they knew that there were official government protocols for displaying and treating the flag? (None of which are binding, by the way.)
They said they did.
I told them my neighbors like displaying their flags all day and night, through any kind of weather, any season. The guidelines say you should display it only from sunrise to sunset, among other things. Keep it out longer and you’ve got a decoration, not a flag.
Treating it like a decoration is just as disrespectful as kneeling during the anthem. At least kneeling in order to make a statement serves a purpose. What purpose does a house decoration serve?
They didn’t like that. He said “I keep my flag out all the time.”
I didn’t comment. But it’s a free country. That’s what makes us great. Flags can be decoration in all sorts of ways. You can get your flag in terms of swimwear, or for your ultra patriotic house.
But unless you treat it will full respect, and truly understand what it means, you’re also just making it a decoration, and your statement is rather superficial. Kneeling during the anthem is showing both respect, and objecting to what your government may be doing. Yet another right guaranteed to all of us under the constitution.
So, before you get all angry over football players who have a political conscience, think about your own actions first. You know what they say about throwing stones in glass houses.
Behavior, study of... 