I’ve heard a lot of whining about the kneeling NFL players being disrespectful of the flag and the military. Nonsense.
The players are rightly protesting against institutionalized racism, for example, by police officers with American flags on their uniforms shooting unarmed black men for no defensible reason.
The soldiers coming back from World War II, who are often cited as being disrespected by kneeling during the anthem, did not fight the Germans, Italians, and Japanese to extend Jim Crow laws, abet lynchings, or extend redlining by banks and Realtors. The freedoms they fought for were for all — not just themselves.
NFL players are just saying that many recent events have stained the efforts of all of us who have fought for all of us.
We didn’t just fight for the few who look just like us, and certainly not for the rich, but for all Americans, native-born and immigrants alike.
