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Issue Of Kneeling Or Standing Solved |
| By
Ted Twietmeyer |
| In a theater it is a crime to yell "fire!" when none exists. But even
if a fire really is burning - are you then allowed to yell fire? Perhaps
not - if a panic ensues after you yell fire and someone is trampled and
injured, you might get sued and they might win. Consider what happens when a bomb threat is phoned into a school. Before 9/11, police would evacuate the school and search it top to bottom. Students would be standing outside without coats, even if it was winter or a blizzard. When nothing was found an all-clear was announced, policeman and fireman left and school continued. A bomb threat today causes authorities to go to the ends of the Earth to find out who did it. Then they throw the law against the student or adult responsible. What about working for the government - the very government to which the flag represents? Is it any different? There are many things we have a choice to do, and others no choice not to do. Consider signing up for the armed forces. You decide to defend America and freedom and sign up, you tell the recruiter exactly what job you want. For example, perhaps you want to be an airman directing takeoffs on the flight deck of a aircraft carrier. To get that job, the recruiter places a standard government defense contract in front of you to sign. You sign up, enter boot camp and graduate from it. In boot camp classes and training teach you everything you can and cannot do, along with the implications of what happens for breaking any rules and regulations. Then you are off to flight deck school where you pass at the top of your class. After flight school you are transported to the aircraft carrier you are assigned to. It is there you are told no planes will fly during your tour of duty - this ship is in dry-dock, being stripped of all paint for re-painting. Buried within your contract was fine print with a clause which states the government is not obligated to give you that job; that fine print you ignored months ago. In the hot month of August you are given a face mask respirator, a full environmental suit to wear and a pneumatic needle gun, then told to start stripping paint off bulkheads. You were trained to never say NO to anything you are ordered to do, unless you want to be punished. You sweat so hard that perspiration puddles up in the bottom of your respirator mask, and you must drain it periodically. After all that training, now you accept your sea duty will be confined as an unskilled laborer working in dry dock. Could something like this happen? All this did happen to one young man back in the nineties exactly as described. His parents warned him over and over this could happen before he signed up, yet he refused to listen. Eventually he was able to obtain an administrative discharge. If this sailor kneeled like athletes freely do now, he could be court-martialed and even discharged (fired.) All you hear today in American culture is how someone is "dissed" or disrespected. It has become a very big thing and people constantly whine and scream at others about being "dissed." So why is it OK to disrespect the flag? What a double standard our society has. Our flag is the tangible image of freedom we can direct our attention to and pay respect. Today people respect and love their phones more than the flag. Clearly there is an issue here of freedom of expression vs. what is right. What we see today are athletes showing disdain for America - the same country that provided them the opportunity to earn millions of dollars a year. No other country on Earth has higher paid players and athletes. The ultimate price for all this freedom and opportunity was paid for by hundred of thousands of service people who died to defend America - many earning about $40/ MONTH - just so these players can have a cushy, over-paid job. Disrespecting the flag is the pinnacle of disrespect. Apparently these players think they are on a level with God in importance, and believe nothing can ever happen to them. If these players feared losing their cushy jobs, they would never do this. These players display a confused, pathetic example of respect to today's children and young adults. Kneeling has quickly elevated to standing in a line with locked arms. Now arm-locking is spreading like a disease. What comes next? Extending the third finger? When will this madness end? Coaches and managers can easily resolve this problem if they have a spine: Every team has extra players standing by in case of injury. Every coach or manager should terminate the contract of one or two players EACH TIME THIS HAPPENS, immediately after they refuse to show respect to the flag and put in the standby players. Don't even let them play in that game. This will rapidly wake up the remaining arrogant players when they realize paychecks can stop cold. Players claim to demand respect from everything and everyone, so they should start by giving it first to the flag. Not one of them is untouchable or on the same level as God. Ted Twietmeyer tedtw@frontiernet.net |