The time I didn't stand for The Anthem, by R. B. Tuscani

Riots in every major city

It was 1969. I was 15 and entering the 10th grade for the second time around. The previous attempt at my high school education ended in a failure, having skipped more classes than attended. 

That year Martin Luther King
Jr. and Bobby Kennedy had both been assassinated. There were riots in major cities like Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. We watched on the news as black people wanting equality were met by riot police, billy clubs, tear gas, dogs, and guns. The Tet offensive had started in January of '68. This was a coordinated offensive by 85,000 Viet Cong and North Vietnamese troops targeting 36 major cities and towns in South Vietnam. It caught the U.S. led forces by surprise and led to many deaths and casualties.

On a personal level, the first girl I ever loved was sent away by her concerned mother who just wanted the best for her daughter, while protecting her reputation from being blemished by an "Italian" as I was referred to (you can interpret that however you wish). Then there was Larry Whitlock, an older boyhood friend that lived across the street who I had grown up with. Larry did his "tour" in Nam unscathed (physically), only to return to be driving drunk and dying in a car accident two weeks after being home. None of it made sense.

Bobby Kennedy assasinated

When the school played the Anthem in the auditorium, on the opening day of school I was not happy with what we were doing in Vietnam nor I was I happy with the way society was treating our own citizens - especially blacks. Whereas there was only one black girl, that I can remember in the schools I attended, I had worked around many black people both young and old on my dad's farm. I found them just like many of my white friends and often more giving and kind than many teachers I had encountered – and not as many racists portrayed them to be. I felt the government was corrupt and the citizens of this country often uncaring and blind. People were in denial in those days as they are today. 
It also had nothing to do with the young men and women that had made sacrifices and given their lives for this country. I had more respect for them than the political clowns that so easily sent them to war. It was about what the flag represented to me at that time: a selfish, arrogant government that was not protecting people's rights, but enforcing its beliefs upon its people as well as people half way around the world. 

Kent State

I was taken to the office of the dean and questioned by a number of people. They called my mother to tell her I was a bad kid, anti-social, and a "radical" who didn't respect the flag or authority. I was removed from the school and told never to return.

It would be May of 1970 when people started pulling their heads at of their asses and recognizing the terrible direction our country was taking, when our National Guard opened fire on a group of protestors and killed four kids at Kent State. As the years have passed, it has become much clearer that we should have never been in Vietnam.

40 years later, we still have problems.

My hope is that America can wake up and stop accusing the complainers of being unpatriotic and open their eyes to the actual complaints. These folks that are not standing are the first hope I've seen in years from a country that has become lazy and complacent. These "protestors" are trying to draw attention to the issues we have in this country such as police brutality, and inequality.

It is amazing to me how much inequality still exists in this country that preaches equality in its own Constitution.  Let's hope people can take their blinders off and stop pointing fingers, and being so judgemental. People need to open their eyes and recognize we have an enormous amount of injustice and unfairness in this world, in a country, that is based on Freedoms.  What happened to compassion? Are we so concerned with ourselves that we can't see past on own beliefs? Let's hope people, kids, will not continue to die because of hate perpetuated by ignorance.

For the last 25 years, I have flown a flag in the front my house. I don't salute it when I walk by or play the National Anthem when one flag wears out, and I put up another one. For me, it is a symbol of Hope. Of equality. Of what this country could be. What it was supposed to be before all these people started creating their own interpretations. 

Wake up, America. You fell asleep somewhere along the line.

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(Now let the hater's hate, but realize, and it has been scientifically proven, that hate will make your life suck, shorten it by a number of years, and eat you alive like a cruel disease that can't be stopped)

Have a great day. Peace