Respect, and some scribbling on the subject 1709261002

            I don't know the person who flies this now frayed flag or why they fly it in the back of this pickup, night and day, rain or shine.

My point here is about respect for the flag in general, what it stands for.

On a visit to Washington, DC and Baltimore when she was a child, my daughter and I took a bus out to Fort McHenry.

Earlier in the trip we'd visited the flag at the Smithsonian, and on the visit to the fort we walked around the site and I quoted the lyrics to the anthem, pointed to where the British ships had been, hoping to give some feel for the history behind the song, never reaching the third verse*, an avenue to an important discussion, that we didn't engage in, on that day. That discussion is one that we will never get past in this country.

I don't remember mentioning while we were there that, at the time the lyrics were written and long after, the flag did not really fly over a land where everyone was free.

When Dr King, Ralph Abernathy, and others knelt so long ago, it was, as must be noted, out of respect for our country and what it was capable of.  

Dr King believed that our country could make progress against racism and other evils that, sadly, we still must struggle against.  Dr King died because he so deeply respected what America is capable of, what we should aspire to.

I'm not at all a sports fan, certainly not a football fan.

I am aware, though, that, when those athletes kneel during the National Anthem, it is actually out of deepest respect and to remind all of us what we are capable of, what we should still struggle toward.

Their important gesture takes no time from the game.

Yes, many of them are wealthy, but don't they earn our respect for using their positions to show respect for our country and their belief that, with nudging, we, the people, may still accomplish the work that is still to be done, out of respect?

* No refuge could save the hireling and slave
  from the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.
  And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
  o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

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Taken on: September 26, 2017

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