Friends,

We are being distracted. And worse, we are being deceived.

This week’s #TakeAKnee controversy is being fueled by attempts to make us think we are on opposite sides of an imaginary line that doesn’t need to exist.

We are being told that there is only way to honor our country during the singing of our national anthem. I don’t remember seeing that written in our constitution.

We are being told that taking a knee is blatantly and purposefully spitting in the face of the brave men and women in our military who have sacrificed for our freedoms. Nothing could be further from the truth. (Does this photo look like a group of men giving the middle finger to our armed forces?)

We are buying into the rhetoric about a piece of fabric instead of the ideals for which those stars and stripes represent. One nation, under God, with liberty AND justice for ALL.

We are criticizing a peaceful protest aimed at raising awareness of an issue that has been ignored by the most powerful in our country for far too long.

We are focusing on a perceived insult while ignoring actual insults and worse, the deaths of our fellow citizens.

As Norm Chomsky said: “The key element of social control is the strategy of distraction that is to divert public attention from important issues and changes decided by political and economic elites, through the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information.”

You may not agree with the method, and I respect that. But let’s not get caught up in the madness.

[Photo: “Oakland Raiders National Anthem Kneeling” by Keith Allison is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0]