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Letter: Exercising one’s rights isn't disrespectful — even in the NFL

(AP Photo/Stephen Brashear) In this Sept. 11, 2017 file photo, from left, Miami Dolphins' Jelani Jenkins, Arian Foster, Michael Thomas, and Kenny Stills, kneel during the singing of the national anthem before an NFL football game against the Seattle Seahawks in Seattle. The anthem is played before the start of every U.S. major sporting event, where fans and players are expected to salute the flag by placing a hand over the heart while singing along. Not doing so is considered unpatriotic by some. The anthem has also been used by athletes as a way to protest.

Re: Kevin Greer’s letter (print headline “Kick them out, fire them”). Mr. Greer, typical of most Trump supporters, you lack historical knowledge along with a moral compass to differentiate between the ability to earn a living and exercise a person’s First Amendment rights. They are not mutually exclusive. And, it definitely shows no “disrespect for this great country” to exercise your constitutional rights, even if it were “spitting on the American flag,” which I have yet to witness.

As much as I respect that Greer chose to defend America in Vietnam, history has revealed — through the hard-fought, not “cowardly” acts of civil rights and war protesters of the ’60s and ’70s — that Vietnam was an unjust military action (never declared a war), perpetuated by lies and transgressions executed by our elected leaders. Civil protest included VVAWs (Vietnam Veterans Against the War) who protested by marching on the White House and throwing their war medals over the fence in reverence of their freedom of speech.

Robert Hoff, Taylorsville