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H. Marcoe Brown's avatar

Love it.

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Bartleby, the Sailor's avatar

Feel free to share it!

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Nelson C's avatar

Another one for the ages. As you know, Virginia and I made our stand eight years ago (two months before the first debacle) and left America for Portugal and for good. As a nine year Vietnam Era veteran, I don't say Fuck America, but I do say fuck the direction my beloved America has been taken; kidnapped, tortured, the ransom being our democracy. It's going to get A LOT worse, but I truly believe people will eventually wake up.

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Bartleby, the Sailor's avatar

Thanks. As you know, I certainly have nothing against veterans, but get sick of people playing the V card or acting like they are somehow more qualified to keep a Town budget and behave morally because they are veterans.

My Dad was in the Army from 45-47, and never considered himself a "veteran," because he never saw combat.

This will be another essay. Not a popular one for many people. I respect veterans, especially combat veterans, but am also wary of what their skill is or where they served and how grateful I'm supposed to be for someone else getting a paycheck, often a conservative who then spends the rest of his life bitching about "handouts."

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AliceAu's avatar

When did sporting events become a place of enforced patriotism? I'm trying to imagine standing for the national anthem at the ballet.

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Bartleby, the Sailor's avatar

From what I can determine, it became commonplace to perform the national anthem at sporting events, specifically MLB games, during WWII. There have been countless OpEds on this stemming from the era when Kaepernick took the knee.

I agree with you, we don't need to have a show of patriotism every time we attend a sporting event.

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Mark White's avatar

good rant.

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