ALL THINGS THAT MATTER: May 2018

The current administration is butting into private industry and our personal freedoms.
In a democracy, aside from the laws that we have created through our elected representatives, government does not tell us how to think and how to express our beliefs. That's why we have a constitution, to protect us against government dictates and fiats.
If a person wants to stand during the national anthem, so be it. If they don't, so be it. Our flag is supposed to be a symbol of our democracy, the right of freedom of expression, press, religion, and freedom from oppression. If an individual feels that the flag does not currently stand for those ideals, then expressing discontent by kneeling is a right guaranteed to all. To say otherwise is to say that the flag no longer represents our ideals, but rather stands for demagogery. That is not America.
Respect must be deserved. When it wasn't there was the American Revolution. There were the suffragettes. There were civil rights and war protests.
That is America, people standing up to be free. Or kneeling when those freedoms are abridged.
So yes, I pledge my allegiance to freedom. I will stand when my country is right, and kneel when it's wrong.
If this is not the way you think, I won't ask you to leave this country. You have to right to believe what you want. However, you don't have the right to force your views and beliefs on me. That's what democracy requires.