Humans have spent a great deal of time over the last few thousand years bowing before various objects endowed with sacred meaning — oak trees, clay fertility figurines, golden calves and the like.
Few people in this country spend much time face-down in front of holy objects anymore, but common attitudes toward flag and country call to mind that kind of worship. It can be difficult to tell where respect ends and veneration begins.
A good example is the uproar over athletes protesting during the national anthem. People say the athletes are disrespecting the flag and what it represents, but their fury at the athletes is almost religious in fervor. Maybe the word they’re searching for is “sacrilege,” not “disrespect.”
But the flag is not a sacred or holy totem, nor is the national anthem a religious ceremony, and I believe we’d do well to steer clear of treating them that way.
The sacred is above criticism from mere mortals. But neither our flag nor the nation it stands for fit comfortably into that category.
What does Old Glory represent? For many of us, it represents a place of freedom and stability, a nation to be grateful for. If you are European, it represents liberation and friendship and a place of opportunity, or at least it used to.
But if you are a Native American, the flag represents destruction of your culture. If you are Mexican, it represents the conquest of much of your country’s territory. If you are Iraqi, it represents occupation.
More
Few people in this country spend much time face-down in front of holy objects anymore, but common attitudes toward flag and country call to mind that kind of worship. It can be difficult to tell where respect ends and veneration begins.
A good example is the uproar over athletes protesting during the national anthem. People say the athletes are disrespecting the flag and what it represents, but their fury at the athletes is almost religious in fervor. Maybe the word they’re searching for is “sacrilege,” not “disrespect.”
But the flag is not a sacred or holy totem, nor is the national anthem a religious ceremony, and I believe we’d do well to steer clear of treating them that way.
The sacred is above criticism from mere mortals. But neither our flag nor the nation it stands for fit comfortably into that category.
What does Old Glory represent? For many of us, it represents a place of freedom and stability, a nation to be grateful for. If you are European, it represents liberation and friendship and a place of opportunity, or at least it used to.
But if you are a Native American, the flag represents destruction of your culture. If you are Mexican, it represents the conquest of much of your country’s territory. If you are Iraqi, it represents occupation.
More
32 comments:
Also in the DT -- editorial yesterday in support of tripling the salary of Salisbury's mayor to $75,000 for Jake Day.
Since the author didn't bother to research history I will help them out.
Baseball fans in the late 19th century might’ve heard live military bands play the Star-Spangled Banner at a game every so often, but the song—which hadn’t yet been designated as the national anthem—wasn’t really a common occurrence at sporting events. That began to change on September 5, 1918, during Game 1 of the World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs. It was an era when the Red Sox still had Babe Ruth, and the phrase “the last time the Cubs won the World Series” wasn’t yet a joke. In fact, the two teams had won six of the last 15 world championship titles.
Yet even though the event featured two teams at the top of their games, the crowd was somber that day, writes ESPN The Magazine. Since entering the Great War a year and a half ago, more than 100,000 U.S. soldiers had died. And just a day before the game, a bomb had exploded in Chicago, (the city in which the game was held), killing four people and injuring dozens more. In addition, the U.S. government had recently announced that it would begin drafting major league baseball players.
All this sat heavy on the shoulders of both the players and the smaller-than-usual crowd of fans that day. But during the seventh-inning stretch, the U.S. Navy band began to play the Star-Spangled Banner; and something changed.
As the song began, Red Sox infielder Fred Thomas—who was in the Navy and had been granted furlough to play in the World Series—immediately turned toward the American flag and gave it a military salute, according to the Chicago Tribune. Other players turned to the flag with hands over hearts, and the already-standing crowd began to sing. At the song’s conclusion, the previously quiet fans erupted in thunderous applause. At the time, the New York Times reported that it “marked the highest point of the day’s enthusiasm.” The song would be played at each of the Series’ remaining games, to increasingly rapturous response. And patriotism played a part right from the start, as the Red Sox gave free tickets to wounded veterans and honored them during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner before the start of the decisive Game 6.
Other baseball parks began to play the song on holidays and special occasions, and Red Sox owner Harry Frazee made it a regular part of Boston home games. The Star-Spangled Banner officially became the U.S. national anthem in 1931, and by the end of World War II, NFL Commissioner Elmer Layden ordered that it be played at every football game. The tradition quickly spread to other sports, aided by the introduction of large sound systems and post-war patriotism.
The anthem’s adoption also gave way to a new American pastime, almost as beloved as sports itself: complaining about people’s behavior during the national anthem. By 1954, Baltimore Orioles general manager Arthur Ehlers was already bemoaning fans he thought disrespected the anthem by talking and laughing during the song. Ehlers briefly stopped playing the anthem altogether, before relenting to pressure and reinstating it a month later.
4:38 PM yea we figured that
BS
Only thing I can say is "Love IT OR Leave IT". Sounds like they are on their way out of the Country unless They just want to create dissention and anarchy.
I would bet the author is a snowflake and not a vet. God bless the USA.
Thank you 4:43!
7 paragraphs of talking and you’ve said absolutely nothing of any importance to anyone but you.
Of course they are there paid off.
If the American flag means nothing, then add the flag of black lives matter the scrap heap.
4:38, Don't you people realize what Liberals do on these type of increases. They come in at $75,000.00 KNOWING the public will be outraged, so they lower it to $50,000.00 so people won't be as pissed off. Ireton and Tilghman did it all the time, Jake is no different.
Quisling's like the author do not believe in history.
This is extremely offensive that he generalizes about Native Americans. To put it in plain English he is not telling the truth. He is lying. He does not know history. Many of the Native American tribes welcomed the colonists. While the colonists brought disease they also bought with them items to trade with the Native Americans who quickly were taken with the objects such as metal tools, cooking utensils, etc. More tribes felt their culture was being broadened and improved upon and not destroyed. Many interacted even marrying into the other culture. Again this is extremely offensive and not the truth.
He's crazy. No one is worshiping the flag nor does anyone think it is sacred. It is not worshiping to pledge or sing the anthem. It is honoring the memory of those who died and honoring those still with us so we can have privileges. What a disgrace this man is who thinks so little of our soldiers who because of them he has the right to publish his garbage. Shame on him. Shame Shame.
Send your comments to the Daily Times, as they wrote the piece. Joe was tipped off and only read it.
Please keep it short and get to the point or lack thereof. Thank you.
The author is correct with his warning about worship of the State and the Flag, much less a Song.
This Country does not resemble the one in which I grew up.
It has been seized by globalist banking families.
The government no longer represents the people.
The military flag is for the battle field (all other Nations of the world are the US enemy).
Fear it and the government for which it stands.
For it is evil.
As the late Mayor W. Paul Martin used to say, "if you are in this job for the money and not the benefit of the city, you're in the wrong job."
Please what do you expect from an ignorant left leaning libturd who reads the DT
Y'all gots lot bigger fish to fry than whether some idiot sports figure stands or kneels or respects the flag.
menonnite says it all! stfu and serve the country you choose to live in or leave it! you enjoy all the benefits and offer nothing in support of the country! just another liberal pos! which is why the daily disappointment chose to publish your drivel!
I'm glad you shared Andrews opinion. For those who read it to the end, you understand where he's coming from.
But this is where he's missing the point: No one, and I emphasize NO ONE , is preventing these players from exercise their civil rights by protesting. The issue is that they are doing it in front of the customers who are paying their exorbitant salaries. If you go to a restaurant, you EXPECT to be served and you tip your servers accordingly. Same goes for the NFL. We are paying them to perform; not piss us off! And since they are on OUR clock as paid employees, they should protest on their OWN time, not ours.
Again, no one is preventing them from from protesting outside the stadium.
The owners and goodell need to grow a pair and nip this in the bud, or it's going to really hurt the owners, subsequently the players. They have no idea that they are affecting their potential income.
My take is that I came to a channel to escape CNN, FOX and all the rest, war, rape, murder, car crashes and all to see sports. MANO ON MANO, TEAM VS. TEAM, cheering on our favorites for 3 to 4 hours, maybe all day just to escape the weekly BS.
One sport has decided that I can't have that any more.
There are many other sports that are keeping the faith, so I will watch them.
Goodbye, NFL, Bud and Miller, Papajohns and the rest.
I'm out of here.
Well the flag is not religious or sacred.....but in what ever country you live the flag of the nation should be respected!!!! Stand respectfully......
No one has to worship any flag or anthem but they SHOULD respect them, the country, what they stand for, your rights under them, the men and women who sacrificed everything so that you COULD respect them.
If none of that applies to you, you are probably in the wrong country.
@ 11:32 -
A piece of cloth should be respected?... you expect to demand that I, a free man, stand for a piece of cloth because it makes YOU feel better about it?
No. I will not. Once a person is compelled to make compulsory declarations of false nationalism that citizen is no longer free.
Ask me to stand in respect of freedom... then I will, because I choose to as a free man, and I will not expect someone to do the same just because I think they should... If the did.. .they would no longer be free.
See the problem? See the paradox? The dichotomy?
Your flag worship makes no sense.
It is used by people in power to lull your critical thinking... so instead of considering an issue as a free person.. .they can wave the flag and query "what? you don't love the flag? you don't love America?"
@8:09
Why must someone be forced to stand, or make declarations of nationalism to respect someones sacrifice... so it makes YOU feel better?
How dare you say that I not respect that sacrifice.
My refusing being told what to do has nothing to do with not respecting, and everything to do with being a free man and not being told what to do. An RESPECTING that sacrifice by exercising my freedom.
In fact.. as I see it, the one doing the disrespect is the person who has the gall to tell a free man what or how to do anything. That disrespects the sacrifice. That's where the problem is.
They welcomed them, then they were killed. Dummy
October 24, 2017 at 8:42 AM
Where did I say anyone should be FORCED to stand? Everyone has the option to stand or not to stand. I said they SHOULD respect it and the people who sacrificed everything so they COULD.
Everything you have said is BS. Free man this, free man that. I don't think you know what freedom is all about. You enjoy your freedoms, (whether you recognize them or not) because some people DID respect that flag, this country and everything that they stand for.
Being free also has some responsibilities attached to it. Just wandering around doing as you please, not allowing others to tell you what you can and can not do, exercising your rights, (such as refusing to stand for the flag) is NOT what it is about.
You don't understand that because you don't understand freedom, responsibility, HONOR, respect or much of anything other than "I can do what I want when I want".
You sound like just another spoiled brat who knows nothing more than to eat, poop and go to sleep.
You don't know how you got to be free, or what keeps you free. But that is just one more right people have, the right to be ignorant as long as they want.
@superstardebater
I think the point you miss, is that you don't get to dictate the rules.
You don't get to say because I won't do as you do that it means that somehow I don't honor or respect freedom, or that I don't respect the sacrifices made to protect that freedom.
You don't get to judge, or say what a person thinks or feels.
It is because I understand freedom, and apparently the Supreme Court also understands freedom (ref Texas V Johnson 1989), that I exercise that freedom.
Just because I don't participate in this ludicrous flag/anthem worship, does not mean I don't honor or respect the sacrifices made for our freedom and liberty.
Being free, means exercising your freedom. Recognizing pernicious displays of false nationalism that are meant to lull and control. That's what being free is.. it's recognizing wrongs and doing something about it. It's about not being oppressed or compelled to participate like places we call "enemy" do.
Take a moment, a look of Penn and Tellers flag burning in celebration of freedom. It might help put this in perspective for you.
I can't help but think your "Could vs Should" argument is a muddled mess that sort of represents "old man yells at cloud". You've not convincingly presented a coherent opinion or justification.. in my opinion. You say no one is Forced... but they Should, and if they don't.. then what? Ostracization? Bullying? Boycott's? Then what?
What after when they don't. Do you ask why? Do you try to understand why? Have you ever asked why?
8:55, fire another one of those joints up, dude.
@11:24
That's the best you've got? All of this discourse and that is how you choose to display your best comments toward the discourse?
How about this, we're talking about honor and respect of people who died and served protecting freedom and liberty, and you make pot smoking jokes?
Content to laugh and name call?
Well I don't laugh, nor do I scoff at the people who have served and died for the most precious of things. Talk about disrespect indeed.
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