One Man's Opinion...

Each generation in America's rich history has been called upon to pay a price for the freedoms that we hold so very dear.

Each generation starting with the one that breathed life into this Great Country has been called upon to pick up arms and defend those self-same freedoms in wars fought both foreign and domestic, throughout our more than 240 year history.  More than 200 of them, actually.

The Civil War shaped a generation.  It actually cost us nearly a generation of our young men, as more than 670,000 Americans, both North and South, lost their lives.  That's the War, if you'll recall, where the North suffered enormous casualties in an attempt to defeat the institution of slavery.  The same North that was under the command of Abraham Lincoln, a Republican.

The First World War formed the centerpiece of another generation.  Our young men and women joined forces to defeat the Axis Powers, costing us a hundred of thousand more, leaving an indelible imprint on yet another generation.

The First was followed shortly by the Second World War, which consumed the entire Earth.  Our young people were called upon to pick up arms and fight both Germany and Japan, else we'd lose our vaunted freedoms forever.  Once again, we emerged victorious.  And we once again lost hundreds of thousands of our finest young people.

The Korean Conflict followed, as did the Viet Nam, ummm, "Unpleasantness," each forming the foundation upon which those generations based their core beliefs on what it means to be an American, and why we must fight so very hard to defend it.  And we did.  More died defending our vaunted freedoms.

But then something happened.  Conscription of draftees ended in 1973.  Before that, when we needed soldiers and sailors and Marines we just drafted them.  After 1973, we began relying on those who joined a new "professional" military.  No more would the young from all over the fruited plain be called upon to defend America.  And its freedoms.  

Some said this was an improvement.  And in many ways, it was...and is.  The average I.Q. of our current soldiers and sailors is higher, quite a bit higher, than it was prior to the end of conscription.  And the level of education is also higher.  More than half of all soldiers now have a college education.  The end of the draft actually became the beginning of a professional military corps.  Congratulations.

However, as with most things, there's another side to this issue.  No longer would we be drafting kids from the inner cities.  From Detroit, and Baltimore, and Chicago, and Jackson, Mississsisssisisiippi.  And we'd no longer be drafting kids from Chevy Chase, and Nob Hill.  The upper crust, so to speak.  When I was drafted the Army looked like America; Black, White, Red, Yellow and every shade in between.  And they came from the poorest areas of America, and the richest.  And thus they forced a coming-together of America's youth, from which they'd then be dispersed out to the hinterlands to spread the experiences they'd had while serving.

I can tell you there were no "Blacks" and "Whites" when I was in the Army.  And thus, there was no "racism."  There was only the guy with a rifle who might save you on the right, and the guy with a rifle who might help save you on the left.  We were all the same.  We were all scared.  We feared death.  We knew that the only way we'd get out of that horrific experience was to rely on one another.  And we did.  All of us.  Thank God.

Less than 1% of our citizens have now served in the military.  Or in any mode of service whatsoever, including the Peace Corps, for that matter.  Now that the draft has ended less than 1% have served.  And that means that our citizens now have no "muscle memory" of what it means to pick up a weapon and fight for our freedoms.  My generation fought for those freedoms.  We valued them.  We valued the Flag which represented them.  We fought for the National Anthem that reverberated within us to our core.  We had to.  We needed to!  We may not have loved our Country when we went in, but we sure as Hell loved it by the time we got out.  And that's the reason I'm so firm in my belief in the Flag, and so dedicated to defending and preserving it.  

And that's the reason I'm so angered by those who choose to disrespect both it and the men and women who've died to protect it.  I'm angered by those who burn it.  And stomp on it.  And choose to "kneel" when our National Anthem is played prior to a sporting event.  And why so many of my fellow veterans are as well.       

Now?  Our  "millinellliaeal" generation has never fought for its freedoms.  They've never even suffered a hangnail for their freedoms.  And thus, they do not value them.  And they do not, as a class, value America, the Country that offers them.  That's being proven on the streets of America each and every day now.  Unfortunately.  In fact, it seems they blame America for whatever they want but do not yet have.  Add to that the student loans they've taken out for a degree in Medieval Lesbian Poetry, which qualifies them to do nothing but ask, "Would you like fries with that?"  And that's why, in my opinion, we're now watching young, White milllennelleials, alongside their Black co-conspirators, bashing cop car windows, and torching police stations, and looting jewelry stores.  And taking over blocks and blocks of a downtown American city, as if they'd launched a military coup.  Which, it appears, they have...

I personally do not care whether a Colin Kaepernick chooses to kneel when the National Anthem is played, or if any of the other members of the NFL do either.  That's their choice.  We fought for them to make such a choice.  It's an inconsiderate, insolent, short-sighted, foolish, unpleasant, unnecessary, incendiary, unpatriotic and anti-American choice, but it's theirs to make.

The NFL has now chosen to officially support what I consider to be anti-American displays.  And just like they have the right to choose how their players should act, I have now chosen to never again watch an NFL contest as a result.  Or any other sport or organization that chooses to support, in my opinion, anti-American activities.  And I believe I'll be joined in that choice by millions of other "silent majority" Americans who value this Great Country and the symbols for which it stands.   

I believe the NFL will pay an awful price for their appeasement.  For appeasement begets aggression.  Which we're all now witnessing...

It's been said that you can tell a lot about a man by where he stands on an issue.  Or, in this case, where he kneels...