Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
A FORMER MARINE ON THE NFL PROTESTS
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GEN. MICHAEL HAYDEN TAKING A KNEE
FOR AMERICA |
As I've asked many times since this controversy began, how can Colin Kaepernick be denigrating the flag by taking a knee when the flag is a SYMBOL of free expression? That’s like saying he’s disrespecting the church by being a Christian. That’s not only hypocritical, but stupid. As a former marine I can say without a doubt - and I’m sure that Trump’s Chief of Staff, Gen. Kelly, could also tell him - that American fighting men and women didn’t die for a piece of cloth or a song; they died for what that piece of cloth represents, the very personal freedom that Trump is now trying to deny Kaepernick and his fellow players.
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But I can understand Trump not being able to fully grasp the concept of patriotism. After all, when it was his turn to fight for this country he applied for, and obtained, 5 draft deferments to avoid fighting in Vietnam - and the very same was true of Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh. But now that they don't have to put their
OWN lives on the line, all of a sudden they've morphed into these "
Super Patriots" and want to wave their flags at our troops from the sideline - until the troops come home broken and wounded, then they call them deadbeats and want to deprive them of public assistance. This has been a pattern with Republicans. During Herbert Hoover's administration, 15,000 WWI veterans marched on Washington demanding that they be paid what they were owed by the government. Hoover responded by calling in federal troops to throw these ex-servicemen off government property.
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So patriotism is just an abstraction to Trump and his kind. He doesn’t understand that Colin Kaepernick and the others are not disrespecting the flag, he is. These players are simply confronting bigots for being the lyin’ and hypocritical racists they are - and all bigots know it!!! They wave the flag as a pretext for their bigotry, but defending the flag is not what they're about at all. What Trump and his bigoted cohorts are actually about is trying to get us to celebrate their right to continue to kill Black people and abuse other minorities with impunity. But now that they’re being confronted with their own anti-Americanism, they’re trying to claim that it’s the PLAYERS who are unpatriotic!!! That’s pure racist bullshit.
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There are many good people in this country, but they have to be educated into seeing America as it is, instead of the John Wayne version of America that they've been spoon fed all of their lives. Many White people can’t see past that, but due to our experience in America, virtually every Black person who's not a complete idiot sees America's hypocrisy and moral corruption clearly. So we can't afford to tap dance around this issue. We must state the facts in no uncertain terms, and here are those facts.
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The fact is, this nation has NEVER lived up to the myth that the American flag is suppose to represent, so it’s past time for us to stop living a lie and begin to actually live up to the ideals in which we profess to believe. They say, lets “Make America Great Again.” Well, let’s take an unvarnished look at what they’re REALLY talking about:
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After being welcomed to this land by the Native Americans, European immigrants responded by presenting them with disease-infected blankets and then bringing in their army to eradicate them. In the end they killed as many as 100 million Native Americans in order to steal their land. Thereafter, they moved on to either kill are make the lives of millions of African slaves miserable. Then after slavery, there was the Jim Crow era in which millions of African-Americans were discriminated against, brutalized, and in many cases murdered. And during that same time the nation was involved in WWII where Japanese-American citizens had their property seized and entire families were placed in concentration camps. In addition, the United States dropped not one, but two atomic bombs on Japan - and since the men, women, and children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were innocent noncombatants, that constituted the most brutal and heartless act of terrorism in all of human history.
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But “America the Beautiful” still wasn’t done. It went on to kill 3.1 million Vietnamese - 2 million of which were also innocent noncombatant men, women, and children. Then they did the very same thing to the people of Iraq, but they were more compassionate with the Iraqis - they only killed a million of them, but for no other reason but the fact that they didn’t like the cut of their jib.
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TRUMP SOUGHT, AND OBTAINED, 5 DRAFT
DEFERMENTS TO AVOID GOING TO VEITNAM
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So tell me, exactly what is it that Colin Kaepernick and the others suppose to be so proud of that they should feel obligated to stand every time they hear a song? What the hell are we supposed to be so proud of? It’s not as if either the song, or the flag, represents a history of great acts of human compassion, it’s a flag that represents 241 years of criminal brutality, thuggery and mayhem. But in spite of all that, when Colin took the knee, he wasn’t ranting and raving about not loving this country, his actions simply suggested that we should stop lying about who we profess to be, and every TRUE American - or at least, those who subscribe to the United States Constitution - should agree with him.
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In order for this nation to adhere to the
prescription for greatness that was laid out by its founding fathers, we must constantly seek to become better each day than we were the day before. Because the fact is, anyone who claims that America has been anything even approaching “great” in its past, is living in a delusion.
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A REAL AMERICAN DURING A RESCUE OPERATION -
NO TRUMP-LIKE BLUSTER, JUST ACTION
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I know there's a lot of people who are going to resent what I've said, and they're going to find it hard, if not impossible to swallow, but try to objectively challenge any fact that I've laid out here and see what you come up with. The only thing "great" about America is its potential, and that's what we should focus on, instead of continuing to live a lie. It’s trying to live that lie that’s destroying this country. Bigots like Trump will say America is fine just like it is, but it’s not, and it’s trying to live his delusional vision of America that’s preventing us from moving forward toward TRUE greatness.
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The truth is, America is an Affirmative Action program for the rich and powerful who are leaving no stone unturned to keep the rest of us divided and subservient, and our ignorance and bigotry is their most effective weapon. So to have cowardly bigots like Trump wrapping themselves in the flag is a national disgrace.
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| A TRUMP PATRIOT |
Eric L. Wattree
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.
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