I'm an army brat, well if my uncles are included, I'm also a navy brat and and an air force brat. I guess I'm really a military brat. All of these elders fought in the wars, WWI, WW2, Korean. My dad even spent time in Vietnam as a military attache for the UN, or in his words "a glorified spy". All of these men fought behind their "war flag", a practice dating as far back as the Roman empire, Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan to name a few. Any person disrespecting a war flag was disrespecting all the warriors who defended that flag in battle. Such disrespect was interpreted as a declaration of war and would quickly cause their death.
Wikipedia defines a war flag as follows:
A
war flag, also known as a
military flag,
battle flag, or
standard,
[1] is a variant of a
national flag for use by a country's military forces when on land. The nautical equivalent is a
naval ensign. Under the strictest sense of the term, few countries today currently have proper war flags, most preferring to use instead their
state flag or standard national flag for this purpose.
So the Stars and Stripes and the Canadian Maple Leaf are really war flags that are at the same time national flags.
Wikipedia tells how the anthem and the flag first appeared in sports:
In 1899, the US Navy official adopted "The Star-Spangled Banner".
[16] In 1916, President
Woodrow Wilson ordered that "The Star-Spangled Banner" be played at military
[16] and other appropriate occasions. The playing of the song two years later during the
seventh-inning stretch of Game One of the
1918 World Series, and thereafter during each game of the series is often cited as the first instance that the anthem was played at a baseball game,
[17] though evidence shows that the "Star-Spangled Banner" was performed as early as 1897 at opening day ceremonies in
Philadelphia and then more regularly at the
Polo Grounds in New York City beginning in 1898. In any case, the tradition of performing the national anthem before
every baseball game began in
World War II.
[18]
Thus the tradition lives on to salute all warriors defending the flag to protect freedom and democracy. It has nothing to do with race, religion, beliefs, special interest groups, it has everything to do with honoring our warriors.
As far as I'm concerned people who disrespect the flag or the anthem need to be exposed to attitude adjustment - send them all to boot camp. I'm almost positive they would quickly see the light.
But what do I know, I'm only a military brat and proud of it!
! Now if the Vikings can overcome the refs, I mean our own stupid mistakes, we can double up!
