These Are The Things For Which I Will Not Stand

Donald Tsump has a solution: Find another country. This was his Sour-Patchness' suggestion for how professional quarterback Colin Kaepernick might deal with his concerns about standing for our national anthem. The first thing that occurred to me was this: Colin Kaepernick is a citizen of one of the greatest democracies that have ever been visited on this planet. It's the one with the Freedom of Speech thing. The one that comes just before the Freedom of Guns thing, so it sometimes doesn't get the play that it could. And it's important to mention at this point that Mister Tarrmp has that same freedom, which he exercises most effusively. And when Mister Kaepernick chose to exercise his freedom of expression by not standing up for our national anthem, he gave millions of people with access to a keyboard or a water cooler an opportunity to express themselves about how they felt about all this freedom of expression.
It's a celebration of freedom, right?
Rights.
"Know your rights: All three of them." - The Clash
Those punks from Britain suggested that you have a right to free speech, "as long as you're not dumb enough to actually try it."
Or, as Betty Bowers tweeted, "FUN FACT: Most people saying Colin Kaepernick is unpatriotic for criticizing America are wearing red ball caps that say America isn't great." Come on guys, here's that thing we can all agree on: Having this conversation at all is proof that our version of civilization works. No one has lost a tongue. No one has had their kneecaps removed as punishment for refusing to stand during our national anthem. Not yet, anyway. We don't even deport folks who have issues with the way things are being run around here. Not yet, anyway.
I can remember having a lengthy discussion at a faculty meeting about whether or not we should say "one nation under God" when our classes recited the Pledge of Allegiance. It was hugely ironic that we would debate how we should repeat the Pledge of Allegiance. But we're Americans, and that's the we we do things 'round these parts.