Letter: Standing for anthem is honoring our flag

The recent trend for football players to kneel during the national anthem and the militant fan base repudiation is an ironic example of when vehemently opposing viewpoints are simultaneously wrong.

The national anthem is a song about our flag. When we choose to stand for the anthem we are choosing to honor our flag. Demanding schools and franchises instruct players to stand is just as misguided as those that choose to kneel.

Standing for the flag is not the only time one stands out of respect. In my life I have had to participate in the perfunctory gesture of standing when a judge enters a courtroom, involuntarily acknowledging the judge's authority. And I have chosen, many times, to voluntarily stand in church and take communion. Choice makes communion far more solemn and genuine than standing for a judge.

Kneeling to protest the president implies those that stand do so for the same reasons we stand in a courtroom - because the president told us to stand. Our flag never has represented that kind of authority. Demanding people stand for the flag takes something solemn and makes it perfunctory.

Our flag represents many things to me. Firstly is a belief that America is good, and secondly that veterans, such as my father and grandfather, should be honored for their service.

I voluntarily stand in communion with other patriots to honor the flag and thusly veterans' sacrifice.

David Sheets

Marion