It was just like any other morning. I woke up and laid in bed scrolling through my social media. I'm a pretty political person (and a history major), so anything of that nature will immediately catch my eye, and this video wasn't any different.
After I watched this video I sat there, staring at my screen in disbelief. I watched it two more times before the rage started to boil inside of me. Did those people know what they were doing? Did they really think that this was sticking it to Trump? No matter who gets elected president, it's still our flag. I couldn't believe that there were such ignorant people in this world. I was raised to respect my country and our flag. It's not only a symbol of our great country, but a symbol of freedom, of courage, of valor and sacrifice
The year is 1776. Fifty-six men stand around looking at each other as each one steps forward to sign what would be the Declaration of Independence. The room is suffocatingly hot because they can't open the windows. What they are doing is a death sentence if they get caught, or don't succeed. The month before, a woman named Betsy Ross was asked by George Washington to create the flag for the new nation, and the American flag was born. Since then the flag has changed. There are now 50 stars instead of 13 and she's seen more loss and suffering than our founding fathers could have imagined. She has stood up for the weak and the suffering in countries that couldn't help themselves. She has been washed in the blood of soldiers fighting for a certain set of rights. She's hung low in mourning, and flown high in moments of immense pride.
Like every person, or every country, we aren't perfect and I'm not trying to say we are, but we have done more good than bad, and it still doesn't give you the right to destroy the flag.
You see, when you stomp on the flag, or burn it, or cut it up, you aren't just disrespecting one person; you are disrespecting hundreds of years of history, and thousands of people who have given their lives, or sacrificed huge parts of their lives for this country. Do you think that you look cool? Where do you think that your rights come from? That one day someone just decided you were deserving of certain rights and that nobody ever challenged them? Wrong. There are plenty of places that don't give their citizens the basic rights that you and I have, and plenty of places that would have you murdered or put in jail for speaking out against the government. Do you really want to leave the country now?
I hope that we can put an end to this, this extreme lack of respect, this self-destructive behavior. When you step on the flag you are throwing away years of courage, you are throwing away the lives of the men and women who make it possible for you to burn your cities, kill your brothers, step on our flag, and sleep at night. It's time we wake up and see what is happening in our world today. Are we just going to stand by and let this happen? I don't know about you, but I refuse to just stand by.
God Bless America, the Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave.
