Personal choice trumps blanket requirements every time

Since no one has mentioned it on this thread, I will The US national anthem was written by Francis Scott Key, a white supremacist and a slave owner. The third stanza has to do with bias against slaves. Knowing this, it is an embarrassment that the US makes itself out to be so ethical and the greatest nation and yet expects people to respect the anthem when it deserves none. Every thinking person should take a knee.

When I have visited other countries and their national anthem was played, I did whatever those around me did out of respect for their culture and tradition.

If there is no choice, then it isn't freedom.

Look at all the attention they are getting without destroying a thing or harming anyone. All the power to their peaceful petition for redress of grievance.

A country can't claim to be a champion of freedom while requiring displays of "loyalty"...

why athletes? what has the anthem got to do with sporting events? (oh yeah, the pentagon paid sports producers to play it to encourage recruitment during one of the world wars. gotcha.) and what has saluting or not saluting the flag got to do with veterans (the common complaint being that kneeling quietly somehow offends veterans)? we don't fight wars for the flag. we fight wars for... well, money, actually, but ostensibly to defend our free country, whose freedom includes the freedom to express our discontent when things aren't going right (such as, oh, i don't know, when black people are murdered for no reason by people whose job it is to protect them, not murder them). how about we stop playing the anthem at sporting events?

g

No, it is a personal choice granted by our first amendment, which our current administration has openly said they want to weaken. As a vet, I find this idea of destroying the first amendment reprehensible. That is the first step toward fascism. Eliminate 1, then 22, then possibly one or two more, THEN, in what I see as ironic for supporters of this idea, the 2nd would be removed.

of course not personal beliefs cover any stupid standard reply

only for the French one