Sitting here in Bien Hoa, Vietnam, what do I think when I see NFL football players in the United States refusing to stand for the national anthem? Well, when I see this I think that my country is the greatest in the world.
I love my country for many reasons, but the most important one for me is that I can express my opinion, and say that my country is foolish, pigheaded, authoritarian, or just plain wrong about something and not get sentenced to 20 years in prison. Back in the day -- in the early 1970s -- I went to a movie with two friends from high school. None of us agreed with or supported the war in Vietnam, so when the national anthem was played before the movie, we chose not to stand. We may have been being smart-asses as well, but nonetheless, we didn't support Americans dying because our government wanted to intervene in a civil war "to stop the spread of communism." (And we really didn't want to go to Vietnam to fight in a war we didn't believe in.) So while everyone in the theater stood for the anthem, we sat. The guy behind us kept calling us punks, and I thought about standing, but one of my friends said something back to the guy, and didn't budge. Neither did I nor my other friend.
I still feel proud of that moment. And I still feel proud of my country, even though the Vietnam War was one of the biggest blunders in American history. One of. Of course, I support our military and our police. My dad was in the U.S. Army and fought in World War II. Two of my uncles were in the U.S. Air Force and one of my uncles was a policeman in Philadelphia. My brother is a graduate of the Naval Academy and served 20 years in the U.S. Navy. My son is in the Army National Guard and served nine months in Afghanistan. I support, respect and admire those who serve or have served my country. Some have paid the ultimate price. They've lost their lives or been severely injured defending my right to sit in a movie theater during the national anthem. Sounds a little trite, but there's nothing trite about freedom of speech and expression. My country has a president who's somewhere to the right of John Birch, but I'll bet Donald Trump is happy he grew up in the United States instead of North Korea. Our president uses his freedom of speech on Twitter. NFL players use it on the field by refusing to stand. I use it on blogspot. So you can kiss my ass everyone.
I consider my country a family. I can talk crap about my country or family, but I don't like to hear some Canadian or Englishman or Frenchman or anyone else insulting my country or family. I don't like it, I'll let them know I don't like it, but I'll respect their views or at least give them their say, no matter how stupid and uninformed their opinions are. That's what makes Americans different. That's what makes the United States of America great.
Since I'm not working very much, I'm spending a ton of time with 14-month-old Joanna and my beautiful wife Phuong. God knows I wasn't the perfect father or husband the first time around, but I've tried to learn from my mistakes. And now I have the right amount of time -- for me -- to be a better dad and husband. Anyway, Joanna is hilarious, in a good way. She doesn't talk much, but I attribute that to her desire to do everything perfectly. So yesterday, when I offered her a cookie (all natural, by the way), she responded: "Ga ba ya yea do di .... cookie." I don't know what the other stuff meant, but she said cookie as clear as an azure sky and better than my students -- anywhere in the world. I clapped and cheered. Joanna absolutely loves it when I praise her. The only time I sort of raise my voice with her is when she starts playing and doing foolish stunts on our very steep and dangerous faux marble stairs. But life is wonderful as I live under "house arrest" here. We're not comfortable going out because people point at Joanna and say "Mỹ Mỹ Mỹ" (American, American, American), and they stare and laugh at me, the handsome NWM (New White Monkey). Most of the folks here are very, very nice, but a few turds can make life stink a little. Just ask Joanna.
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