This is in answer to recent letter writers who objected to certain NFL players "taking the knee."
My two brothers and I all served, and I later worked as a Defense Department analyst for 35 years. None of us, or any veterans or government employees that we know, object to these players "taking the knee." We get it that the right to "take the knee" is peaceful protest - part of what this country is all about, whether or not we happen to agree with the manner they choose to do it.
It made me think back on why as a young man I decided to join the military. I wasn't drafted - I volunteered. I remember sitting on a sheet of plastic on the floor of a C-130 - because there were no seats on the aircraft - flying across Vietnam from Saigon to Danang in the middle of the night, sliding around and trying to get some sleep with the engines loudly roaring and with the butt of a buddy's M16 sticking into my back. And later, flying on reconnaissance missions over the Tonkin Gulf - I knew why I was there. I had paid attention in high school when they taught us about the Constitution. Peaceful protest is what America is all about. It's what my brothers and I served to defend.
The loud, assertive, chest-thumping super-patriots who complain about those who "take the knee" don't understand what our country is all about. They don't really even "get" America. Their attitude against the right of Americans to peacefully protest is an insult to American principles.
Peter Schultz
Vietnam veteran
Lewes
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