“Dick”… I thought I’d made it clear that I felt the effort to suggest that people like me are unpatriotic or don’t honor the American flag was nonsense, but apparently my saying that isn’t enough to convince you of it. Trying to get words through that thick skull seems to be an endlessly-frustrating exercise. Clearly, in answer to your repeated question, and in spite of my having answered it sufficient to satisfy anyone but YOU, I’ll say it again: no, I do not support dishonoring the American flag, and yes, I am a patriotic American citizen. The thing is, “Dick,” I wouldn’t suggest that anyone supporting the basic quest for justice of the BLM movement is, by definition, unpatriotic or willing to dishonor the flag. That would be like someone suggesting that anyone who supported Donald Trump ALSO supports using the American flag on flagpoles to assault Capitol and DC Metro Police officers on January 6th, wouldn’t it? Does the fact that thousands of rioters storming the US Capitol desecrated the American flag in the process, assaulted police officers in the process, violated numerous laws in the process, also mean that anyone who supports Donald Trump (as they all did) MUST, by definition, also support the violence, the attacks on police, the desecration of the flag? No, of course not, and I wouldn’t suggest that supporters of Trump (70 million strong) ALSO support what some of his supporters did on January 6th. But YOU, “Dick,” insist on trying to equate those of us who support the quest of the BLM movement for equal justice under the law with any violence or insults to the American flag SOME of the BLM protesters obviously demonstrated. The question for you is WHY? WHY do you insist on equating sympathy with their cause with acceptance of the violent tactics of SOME of them? WHY do you insist on demanding that I defend the violence, while I haven’t suggested that YOU should have to do the same regarding Trump’s insurrectionists on January 6? The reason I don’t, “Dick,” is because I don’t ASSUME for one moment that you or anyone else supports that kind of assault upon our Capitol or our police. I ASSUME you don’t, and I ASSUME you would call out against any of those who did that. Why don’t you grant me the same courtesy by ASSUMING that my political point of view does not mean that I support violence or lawlessness or the desecration of the flag?
That’s a question for YOU to consider, “Dick.” And I would ask you, regarding the Trump supporters who behaved as they did on January 6, “What kind of ‘patriotic’ group would behave that way?” One that wishes to change our system to another one, Fascism or some other form of totalitarian state, where none have ever been successful on earth, except making everyone who lived under it suffer under poverty and political terrorism? A group that has no patriotism to the Constitution, the rule of law, or basic democratic principles. A group that INSULTS LAW ENFORCEMENT (I’d say attacking them, gouging their eyes out, spraying them with bear spray, kind of amounts to that, wouldn’t you, “Dick”?). So I’d say to those who support that (and I sure don’t suggest that YOU do, “Dick”) fly the Trump flag high, and the Confederate flag as well, while the rest of us look at them for what they demonstrated themselves to be… terrorists who will use violence to accomplish a goal… enemies of the American constitutional system of government… traitors to the United States… determined to undermine our very democracy to get their way. Kind of the very definition of a terrorist organization, isn’t it, “Dick?”
Now, have I answered your questions? And why not answer mine: Do YOU support the January 6 insurrectionists, and Donald Trump’s Big Lie that spurred them on, and does to this very day?
We’ll wait, “Dick.”