To the Editor:
The Book of Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 mentions that for everything there is a season. Now, let’s put that into context on the latest controversy coming from our Administration.
The President of the United States feels very strongly about most of the professional football players not standing or even coming out of the locker rooms during the playing of the National Anthem.
I would suspect that 90 percent of these players were never in the military.
I come from an age when the war in Vietnam was not very popular and our country was very divided.
I believe that our country is still divided. I spent 18 months in Vietnam, came back and sort of settled down.
For many years, I didn’t mention the part that I had served with the Marines in Da Nang in 1966, 1967 and 1968.
Heck, I had friends, classmates that had served overseas most during the Vietnam War that I never knew or had served in Vietnam until 20 years later.
I was finally welcomed home some 25 years later after I returned.
I stand for the National Anthem and occasionally I get choked up, especially around Memorial Day, Veterans Day and when I attend certain military ceremonies.
I firmly believe that a man or a woman with a helmet needs to be paid more and deserves more respect than a man with a helmet defending a football, especially if this man or woman is defending his or her country.
I also firmly believe this country has more serious issues pending than having to worry about a professional athlete not standing for our National Anthem or disrespecting our flag.
I firmly believe that there is a season for everything under the heavens.
I firmly believe that there may be a simple solution for this ongoing controversy. Do not play the National Anthem during these professional games – football, baseball or whatever the sport is being played.
It’s not a prerequisite to play the Anthem – a lot of people are not patriotic anyway.
These people just have to remember that when this war with North Korea breaks out and it surely will, the first responders will be those in the military and they will die in large numbers.
Perhaps when our sons and daughters start coming back in coffins, perhaps they may stand up and
salute.
Pilar Espinosa, USMC
Harlingen
