Veteran’s Day: Lest We Forget
By John Kass
Nov. 11, 2024
Monday is Veteran’s Day.
And now that we’ve gone through a bruising political campaign, with Republican Donald Trump having the greatest comeback in American political history, winning the Electoral College and the popular vote, there is some talk–except on MSNBC–about American reconciliation and unity.
As they try to make sense of what happened to them, and what they did to themselves and to the nation, here’s my question:
Are we to open our arms to our leftist neighbors, even if they spat on the American flag and used the power of corporate media to compel many Americans to kneel during our national anthem?
Our memories are short in America. We are encouraged to forget much of what happens to us. Memories get in the way of commerce.
But I can’t forget what the left has done. I just can’t. I once loved watching pro-football on Sunday. I began to fall away from it with the mounting evidence that the sport created brain damage. And still, those of us who loved it, loved it. We ignored the moral implications of avoiding the truth.
Yet the universe changed. Those who refused to bend the knee, and kneel during the singing of the national anthem–or worse, dared complain about it–were threatened with public shaming as racists and fascists. The corrupt corporate media was the lash that forced many to their knees. And once denounced as racists by the jacobin left, many believed they’d be isolated and fired, especially if they worked in government or for a corporation. And some were indeed fired, their lives upended, their families hurt.
The National Football League is a corporation too. Now the NFL is all about cammo and snappy salutes and Old Glory. The league of gladiators has become the NFL that loves America now, as it loved apple pie and Chevrolet. And like those other corporate interests, like the corporate media and the Democratic Party just loves the red, white and blue.
But like I said, November 11 is Veteran’s Day. Have we forgotten what they did to strike at Republican hearts?
Forgive me Jesus, but I just can’t easily open my arms to those who spat on our flag and compelled other Americans to kneel–not to God during prayer–but to the Godless jacobin left during the hateful rituals they spewed out on Sundays, with the Democrats of the American left that was finally slapped down on Tuesday by Americans who voted them out of office and elected President Trump.
I’m for redemption, yes. And forgiveness.
But how can their be public redemption without public confession? Without public admission of sin? Without saying: America we took your pastime and threw it in the garbage to weaken Donald Trump. I don’t know if I’m alone in this. If I am, it wouldn’t be the first time. And it’s natural that after a long, often an ugly political campaign, that Americans want to get back to “normal.” Ok that’s fine. But what is “normal” exactly?
Years ago, the argument over kneeling during the anthem at NFL games jumped to the Chicago Police Department. Two Chicago police officers, both African-American, made news for being photographed in uniform, kneeling in support of protests against police brutality.
Then Democrat Mayor Rahm Emanuel didn’t want to touch it. He had troubles of his own with black voters, having sat on that video of a white police officer shooting a black teenager to death until after his re-election was secure. Police were prohibited from engaging in political activity in uniform. But the mayor declined to engage about the cops on their knees. President Joe Biden made him ambassador to Japan.
And the hint of the lawlessness to come for Chicago during the next “Summer of Love” was revealed by Chicago’s politics. Democrat politicians were either of the hard left, like Kamala Harris or they were terrified by the left, and so, they capitulated as did Rahm.
Of his kneeling police officers, Rahm told reporters:
“They were somewhat betwixt, between two different aspirations.”
Betwixt? I’ve never heard a Chicago politician use “betwixt” before.
Remember that conservatives didn’t push this NFL protest drama. The Democrat Party, the left, pushed it for years. Remember also that in St. Louis and Washington, black NFL players raised their hands on the field, in the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” pose in support of slain Ferguson, Missouri, police shooting victim Michael Brown, who turned out to be a dangerous thug, not some hero. The remaking of Michael Brown into some kind of plaster saint was was a lie. It was a Democrat organizing stunt and the same thing was done with another thug, the BLM sainted George Floyd.
And it was all a lie.
Later came another try, with the hapless weakling Mayor Lori Lightfoot. It involved the left’s political point man and mediocre quarterback Colin Kaepernick — wearing warm-up socks with pink pigs as police officers on them — first sitting, then kneeling through the anthem to protest police brutality.
What did the political left want? It wanted a revolt of the gladiators on national television. And it got what it wanted.
And generations of politicians averted their eyes, to brutality and lawlessness. The Soros prosecutors amplified this trend.
The NFL watched the left march through the league and the corporate chieftains and the owners did nothing. That was fear talking. And confusion breeds more fear. The rogue gladiators pushed it and pushed it until it all became food for the “Summer of Love” overwhelming big city mayors who were also fearful of exerting leadership.
By the “Summer of Love” of 2020, the Black Lives Matter riots blossomed out of this firmament, and the cities burned. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker were terrified of angering black rioters and looters, so they let the cities be destroyed. Gov. Fat Boy and company they talk tough about Trump, but like the coward on the edge of a barfight, when it was really time to throw hands, they averted their eyes and just looked away wanting mommy to bring them cookies and milk.
Will it all be erased by loving the Cowboys and the Bears and the Lions? And perhaps buying some NFL cammo gear? Perhaps.
But what about those NFL kneepads, for kneeling on hard ground as Old Glory is stretched tight and thousands sing? Can we get those in cammo, to save the knees if not our national pride?
This isn’t the ’60s. It is cops who are are under siege. They’re the ones being shot for a color: blue. On Sunday, a mass was scheduled for fallen Chicago Police Officer Enrique Martinez at St. Christina Church on the Southwest Side. Officer Martinez, only 26, was gunned down by three thugs during a South Side traffic stop on Monday night.
America is not a racist country. We twice elected a black man from Chicago as president of the United States. Rumor has it that his bid for a “third” term in the White House was denied, unequivocally by the American people, on Election Day.
So are we a perfect country? No. Not exactly. But lest we forget, we are a great one. Yet all too often, we’re encouraged to forget.
Even on Veteran’s Day when we honor all those who served
And today, I’m all about remembering.
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