This was inspired by Ted Cruz's disgusting desplay on Twitter.

What does the American Flag represent? I know what it represents to me. To me it represents our Country and our Constitution. To me it represents freedom for all. To me it represents freedom from oppression. To me it is suppose to represent the truth, justice and the American way, as corny as that may sound now. When I see the flag at the start of a parade I stand out of respect but what I find now is most the people are not even paying attention or do not even know the etiquette of the first flag in a parade. The flag should not be waved to protest the oppressed. It should be waved in the defense of the oppressed. It should be the symbol of hope and equality for all. If you use it to protest the oppressed you may just be turning it into a symbol of hate. If you are waving to say, “I am a patriot” and you are not, you may just be turning it into a symbol of hate. Our flag must be flown to honor all of America not just white America or Republican America.

Ted Cruz posted on Twitter a video of him facing the American Flag saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Needless to say he is getting slammed on social media for it. Some might cry foul for the negative attention he is receiving, I would not be one of them because of what the flag means to me. As I stated the flag represents our Country and our Constitution. That is a document that unless someone can convince me otherwise Ted Cruz does not stand behind. On January 6^th 2021 our democracy and our Constitution was attacked by insurrectionist storming the Capital Building. It was the first time our Capital was breached since the War of 1812. It was a sad day for democracy and a sad day for America. Those insurrectionists were fed a bunch of lies. All those lies did not come from just Donald Trump.  I will ask you did Ted Cruz stand up for Democracy? Did Ted Cruz stand up for the Constitution? If you would ask me I would say “no” to both questions. So now he posts a video of him standing in his office facing the flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Those words do not mean anymore to him that his Oath of Office did. In today’s digital age Ted Cruz will always be connected to the insurrection. Everything will survive for future generations to study like they are right there. One word for thought, do not do anything that would embarrass your great grandchildren. Honesty would never embarrass, your lying will.

I have always stood for and sang the National Anthem. I am one of those guys that think of it as a participation song. The last baseball game I was at was at Miller Park in Milwaukee with my wife and my two oldest grandchildren. It was a great day to be at the ball park. At the start of the game of course they played the National Anthem. I sang of course. Now directly behind me where too very nicely dress ladies. They stood and gossiped all through the performing of the National Anthem. They never stopped talking.  I thought their behavior as very disrespectful to the Flag and our Anthem. Back then you could look around a ball park and see all kinds of people disrespecting our Anthem and our Flag. Now when you go to the park and the Anthem is played you do not see that as much. Why? One person, Colin Kaepernick. In my opinion it took a Black Man protesting inequality to remind us on how we should be respecting our flag. Now it was Colin’s constitutional right to protest the way he was. Even though I always stand and sing I have to respect that right. Many men died for that right and to not respect that right just makes their sacrifice a little hollow.  

I will continue to stand for the Flag and for the Anthem. I know that my country has made a lot of mistakes and history will bear that out. We cannot run from history. We must embrace it and learn from it. We cannot go back at change what has already happened and if we try to hide it we do more damage than good. Politicians try to write history but eventually history is written by historians who will have all the digital evidence it will need to get an accurate account of what has happened. We need to learn from history so we do not continue to make the same mistakes.

I will Stand for the National Anthem.  I just wish that they would stop using it at places like football games and basketball games and just use if for places of national pride. Our sporting events are just sporting events and I love going to them. There is nothing like a football game at Camp Randle Stadium in Madison WI. Our sporting events are not a source of national pride. They are entertainment. You do not play the anthem before a movie. You do not play the anthem before a concert.  You are just opening up our anthem to be disrespected like those two women in Milwaukee did.