“The personality and the ego scream, while the soul whispers.”—Anon.

To what are we pledging allegiance when we stand for the playing/singing of the national anthem?  Donald Trump seems to believe it’s him. But our flag should not be denigrated by allowing it to become a symbolic representation of Donald Trump. 

Our veterans fought, and our current warriors still are fighting,  for the very same freedoms black athletes have been seeking through silent and peaceful protest.

Opinions are sharply divided on the issue of those choosing to publicly sit out the national anthem in protest of racial inequality. This is not really an either/or issue. One can plea for racial justice while also respecting those who have undertaken the task of protecting our country and its values. Blacks have paid their dues in the uniform of our country yet are being denied some of the very freedoms they were fighting and dying for.       

Blacks have been seeking freedom and equality as human beings since our country’s earliest times—and still do not live free from racial discrimination. Many, in fact, still live in constant fear for themselves and their children  So a little silent protest on Sundays doesn’t seem out of line or deserving of crude condemnation by a president known to lean heavily toward racism. The silent protest actually exemplifies the Free Speech of the very Constitution represented by our flag. And says tons more of consequence than the continuing narcissistic blather of Donald Trump.

Protesters at NFL football games send out a clear message to us. It’s been specified. Not standing is all about racism, brutality against blacks, injustice—unarmed black people being fatally shot or otherwise dying during encounters with law enforcement . . . men, women, even children. “There are bodies in the street and people  getting paid leave and getting away with murder,”  said Colin Kaepernick, who began the current protest movement last football season. Kaepernick, former quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, sacrificed a lucrative career when he was the first to sit, later kneel, during the pre-game rendering of the national anthem. He’s been unemployed since, an athlete that had led his team to the Super Bowl. I hope history at least will reward him.

Compare this to Donald’s comments after the Charlottesville rioting. He saw “good people” among the dull-witted white supremacists who paraded the Confederate flag and swastikas, clubbed a black man half to death, railed against Jews—and killed an innocent woman proudly demonstrating on behalf of a democracy that could breathe free. Meanwhile, he attempts to persuade us (while basking in the applause of his “base” that includes the KKK) that black protestors are attempting to somehow destroy American democracy rather than preserve it and seek its blessings. 

The First Amendment’s Freedom of Speech is a major issue here. However, I also like Section 1 of the 14th Amendment: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Worshiping the flag by rote drilled into us in elementary school is meaningless. While we can have great respect for our national unity, we should also be able to complain about the hives, boils and insect bites inflicted against the body of our society. We can continue to revere our flag to whatever degree we wish, whether by standing, sitting, or kneeling in prayer.

My direct-line ancestor, ggggggrandfather Joseph Camfield, already had been fighting in the American Revolution for two years before the Continental Congress established the nation’s official flag in 1777. So he was one of the first ever to fight under the Stars and Stripes.  My great, great grandfather Bradford Camfield fought for the abolition of slavery in the Civil War. In later years, I also served under the flag, but in a less-significant manner including at worst half a year in a field camp. I had friends including close acquaintances give their lives on the field of battle in both Korea and Vietnam—two infantrymen, a cook, a Seabee and a Navy corpsman. One of them was a high school classmate, with whom I’d also worked at the local Safeway store. Four of them attended PTHS.

The battle here on the home front at the moment is about preserving what this flag truly stands for. Many veterans, their families and friends find the whole matter painful, which is understandable. But on another front, It is being utilized as a propagandistic tool of Donald Trump, who is trying to tie its patriotic greatness to his own faux-macho misogyny and white-supremacist proclivities. 

It was resistance to tyranny that created our flag. It is  tyrannical bullying today that is trying to take away its soul and besmirch its character.

Please don’t assume at about this point that I’m some senile old wartime draft-dodger like Donald Trump was. He was just one more narcissistic coward who bought a rich-guy phony-physical draft deferment. The thing that really should be bothering military veterans is the way in which he is bad-mouthing a true American hero in the person of John McCain—who really put his life on the line and suffered for it. John is a moderate/maverick Republican who puts the welfare of the American people above himself. He now has brain cancer but is staying on the job as a U S. Senator to oppose and block the current attempts of the GOP to repeal Obamacare, gut Medicare, etc.

When my troop carried the various historic versions of the colors in a Flag Day program back when i was a Boy Scout in 1941 and onward, my favorite one to carry was the one depicting a snake with the slogan “Don’t tread on me.” 

My own military credentials (while pale in comparison to the maimed, missing  and killed) are not something I got by way of email. I served in uniform during the Korean War without complaint—drafted into the army while still completing the final month of a four-year enlistment in the U. S. Naval Reserve (begun while I was still in high school). I later had another year-plus in the Army reserve—so I was signed in and at the military’s disposal over a stretch of 7 years. I headed for Fort Lewis a week before my 22nd birthday In January 1951. General Douglas MacArthur, in charge on the battlefront then, would have reunited Korea even though it involved driving against the Chinese army that was backing up North Korea on behalf of communism. But MacArthur was fired by President Harry Truman. 

I was working in my battalion headquarters and was directed to write up an order asking for volunteers to stand honor guard at San Francisco airport when MacArthur returned home. 6-footers were asked for. I cut the order, lied about my height, was the first volunteer and subsequently met the legendary general face to face as he inspected the honor guard. I stood tall in my own mind. I don’t know just how short I actually was then, but I’ve since shrunk to 5-6 1/2. My respect for the military has not shrunk over the years.

I was as gung-ho as the next guy back then. The flag was a symbol of a great unified force against evil. There still existed the national esprit de corps that developed during World War II. It was the next war, Vietnam, during which young people arose in protest, and—under the auspices of the flag we’re talking about—protested in the streets, on college campuses, etc. Just as how we’re seeing anthem-sitters today using the pulpit of their position in the public eye to express opinion in symbolic silence, a subdued form of  “Black Lives Matter” protests periodically erupting in the streets. 

It was bad in Vietnam days, however. I was corresponding with, sending CARE packages to and publishing in the Leader letters from local troops in the war zone. There was actual disrespect throughout the country for our troops themselves—most of them the victims of circumstance—something we don’t see at all today. And a number of students were shot to death by National Guard troops at Kent State University. These days we don’t disrespect the troops or the flag . . . but a preponderance of us don’t respect Donald Trump. Our lame excuse for a president who ranted on national television that any one of the pro ball players sitting or kneeling during the anthem was a “son of a b——” who should be fired. And in another snit disinvited a championship basketball team to the White House.

This is pure and simple rabble-rousing. Sort of Sarah Palin and Tea Party thing taken to racial extremes.

Back to the anthem-sit controversy, Seahawks star Michael Bennett, a leader in the black-justice protest, observed the other day: “There’s no way a black person should feel less human than a white man. . . the change starts with the heart. This is not a violent protest. We’re challenging people spiritually . . . to change the culture.”

Right on, Michael. I may be white by the roll of the dice, but I know where you’re coming from (but without the lifetime personal pain). Hopefully, with the help of those such as you, society will figure out just where it’s supposed to be going.

WAY TO GO, KID! Readers might find this interesting: a 6-year-old “took a knee” in the classroom, and all hell broke loose: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/schools-dealing-students-taking-knee-national-anthem-161226337.html

RELATED NEWS—Despite contrary statements from Breitbart News and several other notorious far-right news sites, Donald Trump’s attacks on NFL players and his call for a boycott has had “no noticeable impact” on ticket sales, according to a thorough survey of major ticket-sellers. If anything, sales are up slightly from a year ago.

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