Within the past few days, I have been able to step back and watch the actions of others play out. I've read stories of people being bullied because of race or sexuality, or gender. I've also seen headlines of many protests of our new President, many involving vandalism, especially of the flag. Burning it, ripping it, stepping on it, you name it, these protestors have done everything imaginable to this piece of cloth which symbolizes the United States.
Why, exactly are they doing this? They are upset about our election. Yeah, we get it. You're upset. Most people are, but not all of them are running around disrupting traffic, burning things, and protesting something that won't be changed by such a small amount of voices.
Yes, it is your right to protest, peacefully might I add, but you do have the right to state your opinion. You can make all the posters and chants you want. You can stand in front of as many things you want, but when you go as far as destroying or tampering with the nation's flag, I believe you should no longer be treated with those rights, because no true American would do that to their own nation's flag.
While you have the right to a freedom of speech, or the right to protest, I wish I had the right to make you feel the pain my family felt when that very same flag was folded up and handed to my grandmother when her husband of 47 years passed away after fighting lung cancer, twice, along with agent orange, both were caused from him fighting in Vietnam for your freedom. I wish I had the right to put you in my grandmother's shoes.
I wish I had the right to make you sit in a hospital, and tell every single veteran why you are doing what you are doing. I wish you would tell them why you believe them putting their very own lives on the line to protect that flag and to protect this country doesn't matter.
Lastly, I wish I had the right to make you sit and tell every last family who has lost someone in a war or in the line of duty that their loved one died for nothing. I wish you could see how many folded up flags mean so much to millions of people. Just like me. Or my mother. Or my grandmother.
Someone you know is either in the military themselves, or they have family in the military. You may even have someone in your family in the military. The bottom line is destroying the symbol of our freedom, what our troops fight to save, and what so many of our veterans have died for or whose deaths were caused from a disease they developed in war, or cancer, is unAmerican. You may have the right to speak your mind , but you don't have the right to insult every soldier, veteran, or military family. That is not just some flag, that flag is hope, honor, valor, and pride. That is the flag of the United States of America, and the millions of brave men and women that have gone to war did not do it just to give you the right to burn it.
