We All Have Problems with America. Stand for the Anthem Anyway.

If you’re an NFL player these days, it’s cool to kneel for the national anthem, or if you’re the Pittsburgh Steelers, not come out of the locker room. If you’re a millennial and you care at all about being cool and “woke”, you’re supposed to swallow the Kool-Aid and cheer on these heroes in their bold endeavor to bring social justice to America.

I don’t care about being cool and woke, so allow me to say how I view this.

The problem with your problem is that it’s not a problem at all. There is no systemic racism in police departments across America. Most of the martyrs for your cause were criminals who were trying to kill police officers. That’s not racism; that’s self-defense. That’s totally justified. I’ve written about this before. About 75% of these men died because they were trying to kill a police officer. Don’t take that to mean that there is no racism anywhere nor discrimination. There are 312 million people in America. Naturally, some of them are racist. Some of those racists are police officers. But overwhelmingly, it’s not an issue. What is an issue is the cycles of poverty and fatherless homes that lead some black teens into crime. Also, the issue is morons that feed the lies to children that there can be no racial harmony and police forces are discriminatory. In terms of racist police: you all are kneeling for a lie.

Furthermore, you millionaire idiots, we all have problems with America. Government is not perfect. Society is not perfect. If you’re waiting for that, you’re going to be kneeling for the rest of your lives. I’ve been on seven mission trips around the United States exposing the harsh reality of what abortion is to a complacent society. You think that hasn’t led to frustration? You don’t think me watching Jackson, Mississippi police watch people steal our property while doing nothing about it didn’t breed cynicism? Or when a friend was assaulted? Or when a business owner went chest-to-chest with me in Columbus? Or when I was featured on the blog of an abortion mill in Columbus (which was actually amusing, I thought). There have been 56 million humans murdered since 1973 in this country. Of course there are things wrong with America.

I think allowing gay marriage is not good for society, yet the Supreme Court legislated from the bench again and forced every state to accept it. I think the trend to accept transgenderism is ridiculous. Conservatives were targeted by the IRS. Government wastes billions of dollars a year of taxpayer money.

My first presidential election in which I was eligible to vote featured Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump. If that doesn’t make one cynical, I don’t know what will.

And speaking of Donald Trump, yes, he’s a moron. Yes, he opines about things he shouldn’t opine about and puts his foot in his mouth. I voted third-party, so don’t blame me. But using the president, however foolish his statements are at times, as an excuse to disrespect the national anthem and the flag is like you going out and spitting in a homeless man’s face because I hurt your feelings with this post. The conclusion doesn’t reasonably follow the premise, not that I expect logic from people anymore.

All of those issues I mentioned matter to me. However misguided at times, I understand that racial issues matter to you. Even granting that your cause is legitimate, that’s still no reason to kneel for the anthem.

For one thing, you are on national television and have children watching your conduct, wanting to be like you. You should be ashamed of yourselves.

The national anthem isn’t played because we agree with everything that happens in our country. It is played because we are devoted to a country that enjoys liberty. That means you have the liberty to look like an idiot. But you are literally protesting the symbol of your liberty to protest.

Alejandro Villanueva, the lone Steelers player to appear for the anthem

We show respect for the anthem because it is representative of the 42 million Americans that have served in the military during wartime and the 1.2 million who have died. They were protecting your freedom to look like an idiot. It represents the police—those violent, racist police—who put themselves at risk every shift to protect Americans—including being security for idiots like you during games. It represents the opportunities afforded to people who come to this country. That’s why Alejandro Villanueva was the lone Steelers player to walk out and stand with his hand on his heart. He’s a first-generation immigrant who served as an Army Ranger. He knows what opportunities are in America, and he knows what it is to sacrifice for America.

We all have things we don’t like about America. But we have the liberty to say that. We have the liberty to choose our leaders, even if we don’t always do a great job of it. We have people who fight for our liberty and serve for our protection. We live in the Land of Opportunity. And we can be united as Americans behind symbols of being Americans. Speak up about these issues if you want. Whine about the president. Say what you want. But kneeling for the national anthem, or raising a fist, or not showing up, or whatever attention-grabbing ploy you want to do, is disrespectful to those that have sacrificed and to the freedoms we enjoy. And you look like an idiot when you do it.