Little rant regarding the kneeling thing.

[vulcanlogician]

If you think soldiers are fighting for freedom, why isn't free speech and protest included? If that's not what you think they're fighting for, as it relates to people kneeling, then what is it?

This is the conundrum that fierce American patriotism faces. In actuality, fierce American patriotism and the American ideal don't mix. 

I can give an "oil and water" example of this: some people who live around me think that burning the flag ought to be an exception to the First Amendment--that if people don't like this country, they should "go live somewhere else." I love to remind them that burning the North Korean flag is illegal in North Korea. We in America have a wide berth when choosing to find ways to air our grievances. We have freedom of speech, after all.

Then I tell them: That's America. If they don't like it, they should go live somewhere else. Oh boy, do they hate that.