SCLaxAttack wrote: ↑Mon Jun 28, 2021 12:45 pm
PizzaSnake wrote: ↑Mon Jun 28, 2021 10:28 am
MDlaxfan76 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 28, 2021 10:11 am
kramerica.inc wrote: ↑Mon Jun 28, 2021 9:20 am
So blatantly disregarding the anthem/flag of a country during a sporting event does not express positive or negative thoughts of said country?
Hmmm. Seems a bit of a stretch.
Perhaps all athletes should use the Olympics and medal stand as a stage to protest.
Perhaps an American could act this way during the Chinese anthem? Or Russian?
It isn’t disrespect. It’s out of love!
Kram, as someone who gets annoyed when the anthem strikes up and see lots of guys leave their hats on, continue talking, drink their beer etc, I agree that it's disrespectful. It's not a protest, it's because they simply don't respect the moment, nor their fellow 'fans'.
But a purposeful protest is another matter altogether. Consciously saying to fellow Americans that we should live more fully up to our country's ideals and aspirations.
And BTW, I suspect a lot of those I see being disrespectful at sporting events are the same sorts who would be blowhards about an African American athlete protesting for racial justice.
My questions about blind obeisance started in elementary school when we all were instructed to stand, place our hands over our hearts and
recite a sales promo authored by a flag salesman in the early 20th century. And great it is has been and could continue to be. However, their have been significant injustices and will continue to be if we do not acknowledge the past and confront the continued issues that flow from same.
Public occasions like this and the playing of the national anthem with its troubled history aren't moments of disregard for me, but moments to reflect on the gap between the "Norman Rockwell" image promulgated by these displays and the reality of the history of our great nation. So, I will sit quietly and let others perform whatever rituals they wish without comment or interruption. I extend to others the same right and expectation of public comportment.
Whatever you do, don't sit in judgment of my patriotism. I'll express my opinions and beliefs whenever and wherever I so choose.
“A lady asked Dr. Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy. A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”
This
comment led me to find out a little more.
OMG, a socialist!
https://www.ushistory.org/documents/pledge.htm
And a racist one to boot:
'Bellamy, a former Baptist preacher, had irritated his Boston Brahmin flock with his socialist ideas. But as a writer and publicist at the Companion, he let ’em rip. In a series of speeches and editorials that were equal parts marketing, political theory and racism, he argued that Gilded Age capitalism, along with “every alien immigrant of inferior race,” eroded traditional values, and that pledging allegiance would ensure “that the distinctive principles of true Americanism will not perish as long as free, public education endures.”'
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ ... 180956332/
About the flag sales:
'Francis Bellamy, a Christian minister, penned the patriotic sentence in 1892 to mark the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. He wrote at the time for a general-interest magazine called the Youth’s Companion, which published the pledge to encourage schoolchildren to recite it each morning.
Schools would need to purchase flags for students to do so, according to pledge expert Shelley Lapkoff, and the magazine just happened to sell them.
“It was both to get people to have flags, in keeping with their belief of patriotism, and then also to help their business,” Lapkoff said. “I believe the reason that flags are so predominant in our culture is because of the Pledge of Allegiance and this mass-marketing campaign that went on.”
It’s still a
public-school tradition to say the pledge each morning,
though the accompanying gesture has switched from an outstretched hand to a hand-over-heart salute, according to Elizabeth Brown, a reference librarian at the Library of Congress.
“It’s just so much a part of the fabric of American society,” Brown said. “We all grew up with it in our schools and our scout meetings and at so many events.”'
Want some real American originalism and exceptionalism? Try eugenics.
"The American eugenics movement was formed during the late nineteenth century and continued as late as the 1940s. The American eugenics movement embraced negative eugenics, with the goal to eliminate undesirable genetic traits in the human race through selective breeding. During the American eugenics movement, laws were enacted that legalized forced sterilizations and prohibited individuals that had mental or physical defects and couples of mixed-race from marrying (Bouche & Rivard, 2014)."
https://sites.uw.edu/twomn347/2019/12/1 ... -movement/
And continues to this day... See the forced sterilization of Britney Spears for an example.
'At the end of her passionate, 24-minute speech, Spears dropped a final bombshell of an accusation: Her “so-called team” refused to let her remove the intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) implanted inside her, preventing her from having more children.'
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-a ... parenthood
Yep, all good here. No issues from our past that need top be dragged out into the light.
"The next time allegations surface that
ICE detention centers are coercively sterilizing people without informed consent, I hope that [people] are as outraged as they are about Britney Spears’ situation. The next time that allegations surface that prisons in California or the next state have been sterilizing folks without informed consent."
"There is nothing more difficult and more dangerous to carry through than initiating changes. One makes enemies of those who prospered under the old order, and only lukewarm support from those who would prosper under the new."