Here's one of my political pieces. It's a bit dated but still relevfant

I have been following the story of Colin Kapernick and the sudden interest in his cause quite closely, but have been having great difficulty discussing it because there are so many tangential issues involved that I would generally wind up in a stream of consciousness tirade and I think we have enough of those in the national discourse already. There is the fact that nobody really paid attention to a few black men protesting the murder of black people by police until a rich old white man took exception to it and the fact that even now the focus is on the method of protest rather than the reason. As a middle aged white man, I think I should leave that topic to those with more first hand experience than me. There is the blatant abuse of power when a man sworn to uphold the constitution disgraces it by using the highest office in the country to call for people to be punished for exercising the first amendment rights that so many have fought, bled, and died for. I’m sure Robert Mueller and his team will address that when the time is right, so I will leave it alone for now. We have people all over the country who claim to support the first amendment right to free speech, yet no matter what form protest takes always say that the way we’re making our point is unacceptable. Trevor Noah has talked about this on the Daily Show, activists have known this for decades and it’s even gotten to the point of there being several memes about it, so there isn’t really much for me to add at this point. Any time the flag becomes part of the protest, the discourse automatically becomes about dishonoring our vets and the sacrifices they’ve made for our country. Now we’re into territory where I feel qualified to speak and where things aren’t being said that need to be.
To avoid any misrepresentation, let me say right now that while I come from a military family and have spent a great portion of my life surrounded by members of our armed forces, I am not myself a veteran. I was denied the opportunity to serve my country in that capacity for medical reasons. The vast majority of the service members I know fully support those who choose to #takeaknee but unlike the draft dodging talking heads on TV and in the White House I will not presume to speak for them. Rather I want to challenge this underlying notion that the flag and by extension, patriotism is somehow the exclusive domain of those who have served in the military. Somehow we seem to accept that they’re the only ones who’ve fought for our freedom. I am truly grateful for the sacrifices our servicemen and women have made for this country, but it’s actually disingenuous to say our military fights for our freedom at all. They protect our borders, our national interests, and sadly, sometimes the egos of politicians with more power than they can handle responsibly.
The enemies who would take away our freedoms aren’t running around the desert with AK-47s and IEDs, they’re sitting behind desks next to the flag everybody’s up in arms about here in the United States and their weapons are vitriol and the pen. The ones who have truly fought for our freedom are people like Susan B Anthony and the other suffragettes, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, the underground railroad who fought for the abolition of slavery. People like Doctor King and Malcolm X , The Standing Rock tribe (remember them) and millions of others we’ve never heard of have fought, bled, and in many cases died for our country. Every day civil rights activists, social justice warriors, snowflakes or whatever else you want to call us go out and fight for this great country. While our military goes out armed with M4s, grenades and body armor to protect the safety of this country, we go out armed with nothing but our voices to protect its integrity. Yes, we fight, bleed and die to protect the ideals that this country was founded upon and to insist that our nation actually lives up to the words “All men are created equal”. We are the ones who guarantee that everyone has the rights guaranteed to us all in the constitution. I have personally been tear gassed, pepper sprayed, tased and beaten for exercising my right to free speech and protecting the rights of others. We don’t do it for glory, or because we took an oath, or because we’re following orders. We do it because we love this country and the people in it too much to allow bigots in government to destroy it. As Thomas Jefferson so aptly said “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism”. To our vets and active duty service members, again I thank you for your service and the sacrifices you make for our country. While you’re out there in harm’s way, please know we at home will make sure the country is worthy of it.