First Step to Honor the Anthem

See there has been much debate regarding the activities of some Athletes (Celebrities) regarding when the Anthem is played at sporting events. The American public is outraged at these activities and I hear that some of the sports owners have created punitive measures if such activities are continued.

This outrage is wrong as it denies the true gesture of respect from these individuals. It further denies them the true reward & value of being an American.

See, the first step to honor the anthem is to STAND. These celebrities do stand. They stand and then, and only then, take a stance of protest. They do not just keep sitting there. They do not gesture in any way but especially in any vulgar way. They just kneel in protest.

They Stand! Repeat after me, they Stand!

The Americanism being denied them is freedom. This is a country born of protest. Some whackadoodle across the ocean acted in some reprehensible ways and we protested. Our protests met with hostile responses and thus the Revolutionary war was a result. The birth of this country was about Freedom. Freedom to make good, and bad, choices.

So here we are a proud bunch of citizens denying other citizens the freedom to protest of which such action was a parent to this country. I do not find such actions antagonizing to my American pride. In fact, I choose the opposite. Whenever someone engages in such polite honorable protest I cheer.

I cheer for them exercising their God given rights to choose. I cheer them living in a country that grants them the freedom to protest the country itself. I cheer for their bravery and let's not lie about this: Doing this is not for the faint of heart.

I cheer for them engaging in freedoms that I sweated and bled to protect. I served, I served at war, and I took an oath to defend this country from its enemies. Foreign or domestic, ones that is. So when I see any person in America trying to deny these celebrities the right to protest, I have to ask are those persons a domestic enemy of the state or do they simply just don't get what being an American means. I settle on blaming our education system as granting such persons the title of "enemy of the state" grants them more honor they have earned. 

However, in closing you, the reader, have every right * freedom to protest their protest. But please return their protest with the some honor and respect with which they gave their protest for us to complain about. After all, fair is fair.