I know that you may find this unbelievable but I disagree with the President on something he has said. As much as it pains me to say this, every person is wrong occasionally. In fact, there are people who have expressed the idea that I am wrong about some things that I have said or written about. There might even be a few million people that believe that I am wrong about what I am about to expound on.
In an interview with Brian Kilmeade, the President was asked what he thought about the NFL’s decision to fine those teams that allow their players to kneel during the playing of the National Anthem. Now understand that I think that the NFL could have gone further to ensure that the players that choose to come out on the field during the National Anthem stand and face the flag. Fining the team probably will not be enough to deter the type of behavior that we saw over the last couple of seasons. Perhaps suspending the offending player would have been a better solution.
But the President took his view just a tad too far for me. He said that the players should be required to be on the field standing proudly for the anthem. He further stated that if they did not want to do that maybe they should not be playing. ‘Maybe they should not be in this country’, He added.
No, understand, I realize that the NFL is a business and the fans are the customers. So anything that detracts from that business to the degree that it loses customers can be regulated. But I doubt that a player staying in the locker room would even be noticed unless some media person made a big deal out of it. And even then the vast majority of fans would not give a damn.
But for the President to infer that anyone that does not stand proudly for the National Anthem should be required to leave the country is way out of bounds. There are people in this country that believe that saying the Pledge of Allegiance or standing for the National Anthem is a violation of one of the Ten Commandments.
3″You shall have no other gods before Me. 4“You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5″You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,…
That quote comes from The American Standard version of the Bible.
Now I am sure there are many of you that would argue whether or not the flag fits the above description, but whether you believe that or is not the point. There are those whose religion teaches that it does. To require those folks to stand at attention for the playing of the anthem or to stand with their hands over their heart would violate their religious beliefs. Some with similar beliefs, went to the gas chambers in Nazi Germany rather than to hold up their hands and recite Heil Hitler.
So while the President has the right to his opinion, that people should be proud of their flag and the men and women that gave their lives for it, he does not have the right to suggest that others who believe differently should be required to leave this country.
For the few hundred million of you that think I have lost my mind, please feel free to let me know that.
musingsofababyboomer 