Let the fans enjoy sports events

THIS IS one U.S. Army veteran who doesn’t believe in coerced patriotism. When a football quarterback took a knee during the playing of the national anthem, he initiated an ongoing protest of law enforcement’s disproportionate targeting of minority communities and, especially, the fatal shootings of unarmed African-Americans with little or no consequences for such actions. Unfortunately, the symbolic civil rights protests of athletes have been twisted into an assault on the flag and the national anthem.

It is ludicrous to call for the deportation of those who don’t assume the prescribed standing position for the playing of the national anthem; also, ... those who died in armed conflict for their nation, perished protecting freedoms back home, they should have been protecting the right to engage in very unpopular dissent. Burning the U.S. flag was once thought to be the ultimate act of disrespect for one’s country; however, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that such burning is a constitutionally protected right of free speech.

It is argued that the playing of the national anthem is a way of inducing unity in the country, yet it has now become a vehicle of disunity, with people having furious arguments about the proper manner of paying respect. It wasn’t until 1931 that the national anthem was officially adopted; also, the playing of the anthem at sports events didn’t come into being until the Second World War, when the commissioner of the National Football League mandated its playing at NFL games.

No other industrialized nation places such a heavy emphasis on its national symbols. Freighting these symbols with dire consequences for not showing the proper form of respect runs the risk of making this nation the laughingstock of the world.

Ending the playing of the national anthem at sports events and ending the attendant glorification of the military through the unfurling of a giant U.S. flag, coupled with the omission of the almost mandatory appeal to “the brave men and women fighting overseas for our freedom,” would allow fans to enjoy their sports events without being burdened with coerced patriotism. LAURI E. KALLIO Albuquerque