What’s the point of kneeling at the flag and during the national anthem if it isn’t disrespect? Of course it is disrespect. The people doing it say that they are misunderstood. A lot is written about this, so it’s not hard to hear the point of kneeling.

The kneelers are protesting systemic police brutality against black people in the United States. The flag represents the United States. At a time to show respect, they choose to show disrespect to make a point.

Many, who don’t kneel, but support the kneeling, agree. Probably not intended as a point of irony, Angels manager Joe Maddon, speaking of one of his players who kneeled, said, “I’m very proud that he stood up for his beliefs. It’s not easy to do that. A young man like that.” As an aside, I would content it’s getting a lot easier to kneel. In general, the media, the Democrat party, and the woke crowd all support it and even worse. What belief was he “standing,” albeit kneeling, for? Standing when the flag passes is respect. Kneeling is disrespect. People stand for the national anthem out of respect. Someone kneels out of disrespect. Kneelers want to disrespect the flag to make a point.

I could kneel because of abortion.  Someone could kneel because of useless wars.  Someone else could kneel because of the women’s vote.  A woman might keep kneeling until there is a woman president.  Are police being brutal?  Not as a whole, not enough to disrespect the flag over.  It’s also a strange way to protest police brutality.  Everyone is already against police brutality.  Police are against it.  Why disrespect the flag over it?

Gabe Kapler, manager of the A’s, became the first manager or head coach to kneel during the anthem. I’m guessing he checked with management before he did it to be sure he wouldn’t be fired, or he just already knew in Oakland, that would be a net gain for him.

Respect for the flag has associated itself with respect for the military. Why? Is this just something arbitrary? No, there are red stripes on the flag that talk about people dying. Those are almost exclusively military and even police officers. People have died, shed their blood, so that others could live with freedom, including black people. I’m guessing that Kaplan felt a bit awkward after all these years of standing, suddenly kneeling, and thinking about the privileges he has had in living in this country.

In general, I have associated patriotism with standing for the flag, putting my hand over my heart, taking my hat off, looking stedfastly at the flag, and then singing with the national anthem. I think of the veterans who have died. Sometimes my eyes water.

I would agree that the more kneeling there is, the less respect there will be for the flag and for the country. The country itself won’t be worth it anymore to its citizens, not worth fighting for, not worth bleeding for or dying for. The more the kneelers kneel, the less respect I feel for a country that rewards and praises kneelers. It’s working that way with me. I’m looking around for a country I respect more than the United States. I’ll keep living here, but maybe I’ll get to the point where I would rank some other country ahead of the United States for different reasons than a Hollywood actor or actress who threatens to leave everytime a Republican wins the presidency.

There is a threat to a country when its people don’t respect it anymore. It won’t be as good or nice a place as it once was to live. As well, children won’t grow up with the concept of respect. Their idea of something good is showing disrespect. That is a growing sentiment, it seems, young people who won’t show respect anymore except for themselves.  They don’t respect their parents or almost anything or anyone but themselves.

 If a person knows what it means to disrespect, then it means that he knows what it means to respect.  Young people for instance know when they are being disrespected.  They are masters at that.  It’s a reason why they want boundaries set up against interaction with those who don’t respect most of how they act.

The overall concept of respect is being lost in the country, which starts with God. People don’t respect God. They love themselves. They even think people should love each other. They don’t care about God though, and that’s obvious. Anything bigger than themselves, they don’t tend to respect. When respect for God is lost, then it won’t take long that almost nothing or no one is respectable any more.