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Out of karakter - a veteran apologizes to the NFL

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Alejandro Villanueva.jpg
First, I must apologize for being angry over your open disrespect to our flag and national anthem. I am sure that most countries in the world would tolerate the same disrespect toward their flag from their athletes, and I suppose America just needs to catch up. While I doubt most of you have read all four verses of the Star Spangled Banner, or know the story behind the song, I'm sure your moral outrage over false news narratives determines it to be racist, and that should be good enough for me.
Also, I apologize for my insensitivity. I know that most professional athletes have to get by on six and seven digit incomes, sometimes much more. Yes, you've worked hard to get there and each one of you represents thousands that didn't make the cut, so congratulations on that. But since I've never known what it is to suffer financially as you have, I'll never know what it is to be systematically oppressed and denied opportunity because of my race. By the way, if you're going to protest against racism, would you put a day aside to protest the underrepresentation of my ethnicity in professional sports? Maybe then I would begin to feel a sense of solidarity.
I apologize also for my lack of understanding. I would have thought that identifying with thugs and not tolerating the honoring of murdered police officers was somehow backwards. But since the NFL has seen fit to forbid honoring law enforcement, I just need to see the error in my thinking and get on board with everybody else. Also, I'm still trying to understand how sitting down during the national anthem or remaining in the locker room isn't really about disrespecting the flag or the country, but maybe it's just one of those things that seems so obviously what it isn't.
So, what's wrong with my thinking? Maybe it's because I'm one of America's many veterans and a patriot who loves my country. Now, while I am a veteran, I have never seen combat, fired a shot in anger, or watched a buddy die. Then again, I haven't had to endure spring training either which I'm sure is the same thing. But I do remember taking a sacred oath that millions of other Americans took which was the same as signing a blank check for up to and including my life. It never came to that for me, but for many who will never live to my age, it did. They were white, black, brown, yellow, and red, but they bled all the same – for you. Please tell the ones they left behind why you can't trouble yourself to respect the flag they volunteered to die under.
Perhaps this is why we instinctively respect Alejandro Villanueva so much more than his teammates who couldn't bring themselves to turn out for our national anthem. For some reason, terms like Ranger, three combat tours, and bronze star, stir us far more deeply than a petulant sense of injustice based largely on falsehoods. I and other patriots of all backgrounds and colors thought maybe you could show a little gratitude for the nation, imperfect as it is, that has given you such opportunity as you would be hard pressed to realize anywhere else. You have such opportunity, by the way, in part because of black men who took up arms and served their segregated country to make it a better place for their children. They persevered and made a name for themselves, a name just that much more worthy of respect and honor for the additional obstacles they faced. If they could proudly salute that flag having far fewer opportunities in their day, why can't you?
There's a world of difference between those who have served, and those who expect to be served. One is worthy of our respect, the other of our absence.

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Note to Villanueva: Don't apologize! Your team threw the flag under the bus, and you were the only one who had the courage to do the right thing. That picture of you by yourself is a credit to you and a rightful embarrassment and rebuke to your team. You were right.

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Progressives pride themselves on their courage. Everything they do, every time they speak, they think they are being courageous by standing up for what they believe in.

It takes a great deal of courage to do what everyone else is doing; to say and/or post what everyone else is saying/posting. It also takes immense intelligence. Only an idiot would dare to offer an opposing view. Who in their right mind wants to be shamed and destroyed and called a racist or Nazi for doing so? That's not courage. That's stupidity. And evil.

That's why I'm a prog. So I can be courageous and intelligent! If everyone on the left says so, then it must be true.

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Commissarka Pinkie wrote:Progressives pride themselves on their courage. Everything they do, every time they speak, they think they are being courageous by standing up for what they believe in.

It takes a great deal of courage to do what everyone else is doing; to say and/or post what everyone else is saying/posting. It also takes immense intelligence. Only an idiot would dare to offer an opposing view. Who in their right mind wants to be shamed and destroyed and called a racist or Nazi for doing so? That's not courage. That's stupidity. And evil.

That's why I'm a prog. So I can be courageous and intelligent! If everyone on the left says so, then it must be true.



I agree with Commissarka Pinkie. Totally. As always.

CC

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Commissarka Pinkie wrote:Progressives pride themselves on their courage. Everything they do, every time they speak, they think they are being courageous by standing up for what they believe in.

It takes a great deal of courage to do what everyone else is doing; to say and/or post what everyone else is saying/posting. It also takes immense intelligence. Only an idiot would dare to offer an opposing view. Who in their right mind wants to be shamed and destroyed and called a racist or Nazi for doing so? That's not courage. That's stupidity. And evil.

That's why I'm a prog. So I can be courageous and intelligent! If everyone on the left says so, then it must be true.
This just in: Rick Monday apologizes for denying progressives an opportunity to express themselves. "I made potential flag burners look bad," said Monday, "and I have no one to blame but myself. Every time I see that picture, I'm embarrassed."
Rick Monday.jpg


 
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