Letters to the editor - Wednesday Sept. 27

What am I missing here? The NFL penalizes players for celebrating touchdowns, but it’s OK to disrespect your country and flag? Fans pay to see football, not political demonstrations by spoiled multi-millionaires disrespecting the country that made them rich. The NFL is to blame for not forbidding this despicable behavior.

Demonstrate on the street or in the parking lot, not on the field when you are on the payroll. Who is in charge here? The players or the NFL? Watch college football games! Boycott the NFL!

Tom Whitt

Northwest side

Kneeling during the national anthem should not be viewed as disrespectful to the flag or to American veterans. This peaceful protest shows great respect for what the flag symbolizes, what veterans fought for. Athletes are pointing to inequities in our nation and asking they be addressed so the republic for which the flag stands can truly rise to its promised glory. That republic is supposed to be “indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Clearly, many citizens — especially our black citizens — are not fully afforded that liberty and justice. Also clearly, we now have a man in the White House who, either by ignorance or design, is making this nation divisible. Let’s focus less on approving or disapproving the protest format and more on the resolving the issues that gave rise to it.

Phil Tygiel

Northeast side

Kneeling is a form of respect, just like knights knelt before a monarch and people kneel in church. By kneeling, athletes are respectfully demonstrating that we have not yet reached our full potential as a nation. Once we have quality, affordable health care for all, quality education, no discrimination and meaningful work with commensurate pay, as well as an end to police brutality, then we can all stand and be proud.

Dan Beamer

Northwest side

Donald Trump’s vitriolic attack on athletes as being unpatriotic for a peaceful, legal protest is irony in the extreme. In contrast, his reaction to the deadly violence by neo-Nazis and other white supremacy groups in Charlottesville was late and vapid.

Of our many presidents, Trump is the least patriotic. He appears on a course to dismantle democracy, touts racism, denigrates women and gays, alienates our allies and admires our adversaries, particularly (Russia’s Vladimir) Putin. He tries to undermine our intelligence agencies, denies Russia’s interference in our elections and would destroy the free press.

He brought alt-right members in to his White House, and his appointees are hostile to the agencies they lead. His infantile tweets and ignorance of diplomacy are a danger to the whole world. He now wraps himself in the flag of our country, but did not serve it when called. Athletes shouldn’t be fired, Trump should.

Pamela Marvin

Foothills

There is a lot of controversy on the NFL players kneeling during the national anthem. I believe kneeling during the anthem shows disrespect for the flag. I served in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive, and I disapproved of the war. I also condemn police brutality, crime and murder. I also have the right to protest and march and support those who share my ideas. But I will never, ever disrespect our flag.

Don Cotton

Northeast side

Stark irony was displayed on the Opinion section Tuesday. Columnist Cal Thomas had a piece addressing the documentary “The Vietnam War” with the recommendation that current and future generations should watch it. Some of it is not easy to see for those of us who served there, but there are important lessons in the series. I don’t accept the Sen. George McGovern quote universally, though. Some of us chose to serve the country. We didn’t choose our war.

But back to the page. Opinions are like belly buttons, everyone has one. The opinions expressed by Star editorial and cartoonist David Fitzsimmons is where the irony comes in. Vietnam vets know all too well how open disrespect feels. It hurts. Perceptions are like belly buttons, too. This country and the flag were here long before the NFL and will remain long after. My Vietnam buddies, Steelers player Alejandro Villanueva and a few other veteran players have more insight than everyone else in the NFL. To those vets, welcome home.

Douglas May

Northwest side

These football players who showed their ignorance and stupidity through their disrespect of our flag need to be fined and not allowed to play until they understand what they have done. Our men and women of the military are giving their lives for our flag. If it wasn’t for them, these players would not have a job. Maybe instead of playing football, they should don a uniform and learn how to stand at attention when the national anthem is played.

Herb Sautter

Northwest side

I am a retired high school English teacher who spent time trying to make my students understand that when they resorted to cursing, they were debasing themselves and the message they were trying to deliver.

I persuaded a great many young people to “use their words” to express their exact sentiments as curse words have no true meaning other than to stir up anger.

Now we have a president who throws profanity around in his “speeches” like it was confetti, thereby exhibiting his inability to use intelligent language to say what he wishes. How many people, young and not, will use his example to curse in inappropriate settings? What a poor precedent he is setting. North Korea, health insurance, taxes, etc., have taken a back seat to his tweets regarding the NFL.

Barbara Mongan

West side