Take a little trip to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania in the U.S. in January when it is freezing cold where the American Revolution started in the 1700s. Hold a musket ball in your fingers and imagine it piercing your flesh and breaking a bone or two. But there won’t be a doctor or sports trainer there to assist you until after the battle, so just wait your turn…’man up’ and plug the profusely bleeding hole with your finger to try and stop the bleeding yourself…and just wait. And try taking your overpriced Nike running shoes or sports cleats and socks off to get a real January freezing cold experience.
Then, take a knee on the beach at Normandy, France where man after American man stormed the beach to take on the German Nazi fascists during the 1940s, even as the soldier storming the beach in front of you was shot to pieces and you get covered with that dying soldier’s blood and brain matter. The sea and beach is already stained with red, now dirtied, American blood. The only thing blocking you from Nazi machine gun fire are the dead bodies of all the American boys lying dead in front of you riddled with bullets from enemy fire.
Take a knee in the sweat-soaked jungles of Vietnam. From Khe Sanh to Saigon, Vietnam…anywhere there will do. Over 50,000 American boys died in all those jungles during the 1960s. There was no military playbook or scientific models that told our American soldiers what to expect, but our soldiers knew what flag they represented. When they came back home to America, they were protested by young and old alike…and often literally got spit on by protesters for reasons only cowards know.
Take another knee in the blood drenched sands of Fallujah, Iraq in 110 degree heat. Make sure you wear your American soldier’s Kevlar helmet and battle dress given to soldiers during the Iraq War during the late 1900s. Your number won’t be printed on your helmet unless your ‘number is up’ and you’re dead! You’ll need to stay hydrated but there won’t be any subservient sports trainers there to quickly pander to your every need then squirt some refreshing Gatorade into your gaping mouth so you can go out and make the next play on the field. On the field in Iraq you’re on your own…figure out your next play or maybe die needlessly like the 5000 American boys before you, or get injured and possibly maimed for life needlessly like the 10,000 American boys before you if you figure wrong.
There are a lot of places to take a knee where Americans have given their lives all over the world. When you use the American flag under which our soldiers have fought as a source for your displeasure, you dishonor the memories of those who bled for the very freedoms you have. For many of us that’s what the red stripes mean. They represent the blood of those who spilled a sea of it defending your liberty.
While you’re on your knee, pray for those that came before you, not on a manicured lawn striped and printed with numbers to announce every inch of ground taken on game day, but on nameless hills and bloodied beaches and in sweltering heat in forests and on bitter cold mountains, every inch marked by an American life lost serving the flag you protest.
No cheerleaders, no announcers, no coaches, no fans, just American men and women, delivering the real fight against those who chose to harm us, blazing a path so you would have the right to “take a knee.” Odds are you haven’t an inkling of what it took to get you where you are today, but your “protest” is duly noted. Not only is it disgraceful to a nation of ‘real’ heroes, it serves the purpose of pointing to your ingratitude for those who chose to defend you under that banner called the American flag that will still wave long after your sports jersey is retired ‘little man’.
If you REALLY feel the need to take a knee, come with me to church on Sunday and we’ll both kneel before Almighty God. We’ll thank Him for preserving this country for as long as He has. We’ll beg forgiveness for our Ingratitude for all He has provided us. We’ll appeal to Him for understanding and wisdom. We’ll pray for liberty and justice for all because He is the one who provides those things. But there will be no protest. There will only be gratitude for His provision and a plea for His continued grace and mercy on the land of the free and the home of the brave.
It goes like this…GOD BLESS AMERICA.
SUPPLEMENTAL SOURCE: 70s ROCK MUSICIAN, SINGER, SONGWRITER, POLITICAL ACTIVIST, TED NUGENT, JUNE 2020