If the U.S. military does go forth to occupy and “dominate the streets” in the U.S., as President Donald Trump is threatening, they should not do so under the Stars and Stripes.
Men and women under that flag have fought and died for freedom across the globe for more than two centuries.
Trump’s threatened action will not be to support freedom, except in a very narrow sense. It will be to enforce the racist, misogynist, authoritarian power of white men to subjugate and kill “low lives and losers."
Those who are protesting, and even rioting, are doing so because they are tired of being subjugated and murdered, and the available “lawful channels” are closed to them. For decades they have been silent and peaceful and gently asking for change. And been denied. They are still dying at the hands of government agents.
If, instead of attempting to make the system more just for all of its people, the U.S. government deploys military force to subjugate its own population, that military should own up to what they are doing and what they are fighting for: Fly the Stars and Bars of the Confederacy.
Wayne Robinson
Eagle River
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