“I’m not a public figure.”
With a church hitting right around a hundred on a Sunday Morning, and with maybe another hundred people around the country knowing something about me but not really caring too much about dicing up every directive I distainfully deliver, it’s safe to say that I am not a public figure.
I will never disrespect the flag, and I don’t care who is hurt or offended by that. As others have the constitutional right to criticize America, America’s leaders, America’s laws, and about everything else they may disagree with, I have a constitutional right to voice my support as I choose. We all possess those same rights! I do not agree with those who kneel during the National Anthem as their form of expression, and I will never do it. I place it in the same general category as Flag Burning, which I guess is legal, and I’m not even going to bother to look up whether it is or is not. I’ll never burn the Flag in protest, and I’m happy to let the Supreme Court handle the legality part of it.
I’m not black, but when I was younger I wanted to be and somehow pictured myself as. Hey, they could out dance, out sing, and pretty much out play every white athlete this side of Larry Bird! Why wouldn’t a young dude like me admire such? I did, and still do in all of those respects, but that doesn’t mean I can’t say, “I will never disrespect the Flag.” Others can if they want to, and that’s their right. I can certainly be judged for my “stand” but it should still be acknowledged that I have the right to stand!
And now, the great Drew Brees is on his own Obama Apology Tour because he said what I just said about the Flag. He’s a public figure, he feels the pressure, and now he is confessing as on bended knee that it was insensitive of him to do so. That’s Bull! Why can’t his teammate Malcom Jenkins just say, “As Drew respects me and my opinions expressed as an American, so I respect his opinions expressed as an American.” And while we’re at it, how about “All Black Voices Matter.” Can we take a moment and listen to conservative Black Americans such as Herschel Walker and Burgess Owens, fantastic athletes who are not only “athletic” (translated “Black”) but who are also “cerebral” (translated “White.”) After all, it’s been years since we stupidly spouted, “A black man can’t be a quarterback.”
In standing against racism, we’ve stereotyped one another into pigeon holes so tiny that a hummingbird couldn’t fly through them if their nest depended on it. Now that’s anti-American at its pinnacle! How about we all embrace the concept of a non-violent voice in the public square, respecting one another, never placing the other guy in a chokehold, always being mindful and caring about his pleas, and just loving him and treating him like the American brother that he is. We have fought together in every American war with all of us distinguishing ourselves “In the air, on land, and sea” and very few of us are purebloods anyway. Just ask the Sally Hemings family.
In his famous speech on June 26, 1963 in West Berlin, our beloved President John Kennedy said "Ich bin ein Berliner" ("I am a Berliner.") Contrary to urban legend, he did not say “I am a doughnut.” Everybody loved it then and still does. What would happen if each of us said, “I am a Black/White American, and I will respect all of my brothers as such.” Maybe we dress a little differently and maybe we sport different hairdos, but we are all, as Sister Sledge said, “Family.”
But I don’t kneel when they play the National Anthem, I salute. That’s my right.
Love and Prayers to all,
Pastor