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In a small New England town, one of the few places in America where young people are once again playing organized baseball on community fields, an old man; a veteran, proudly stares at the unfurled stars and stripes and with a tear in his eye sings our national anthem along with the recorded version being piped over the loud speaker.
In a parking lot within a bedroom community outlying Portland, Oregon a young woman sees a soldier walking to her car and alters her path to intersect with the soldier’s, extends her hand and offers her sincere thanks for the soldier’s service to our country.
In a fast food drive-through in Hamilton, Ohio a father of three notices that the car behind him contains four servicemen. He preemptively pays for their meals and drives away before they are aware of his kindness and generosity.
These three proud Americans heroes have little in common except for their love of our country, our freedoms and our flag.
For them, unlike the people that disrespectfully drag oversized flags behind their Harleys and ridiculously large pickup trucks as if they were Halloween decorations, the flag stands for human rights, equality – or at least a hope for equality, and the liberties that so many have fought and died for. It symbolizes justice for all and the ability to speak freely and to pursue a fulfilling life.
The harder the bottom-feeding trumphumps try to co-opt the 13 stripes and 50 stars and attempt to turn it into a symbol of racism and hate and misinterpretations of our Constitution and the Bill of Rights, the more a symbol of freedom it becomes for our heroes. For where else in the world can idiots run so unconstrained? Where else in the world can a nation’s flag be treated so cruelly? Where else in the world are people free to act so moronically in public? Nowhere.
Now, the question of where else in the world a nation’s leader is able to outwardly and openly try to restrict human rights, equality – or at least a hope for equality, and the liberties that so many have fought and died for is easy to answer: China, North Korea and Russia – all the places and leaders our incumbent president reveres the most. And the fact that his strategy to blatantly court and pander to those most easily duped – the racists, the gun-toters and the mentally challenged – is lost on that very group, only proves how racist, challenged and easily duped they indeed are.
Our proud American heroes have at least two other things in common; how they will vote in November and what the flag unfalteringly means to them, no matter who or how many buffoons try to turn it into something evil.
May God Bless America and may He also cast a vote for Joe Biden.
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– REENO – A graduate of Portland State University, Steve Kloser is the author of Beginning Band – A Guide to Success. Accomplished teacher, conductor, composer web developer, Packers Fan, and Proud American, Reeno’s usually slanted outlook often presents an unlikely perspective on old and new. He currently lives on the Portland, OR area.
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