People at Half Mast

   I have taken a break from mad blog posts and it could be because I have recovered from people hurting me and my general anger has decreased.  I think my non-madblog posts are better, and I am tempted to just say nevermind about this blog. But it is a good place for opinions, and I think I will share a thought about the flag protests, which I do think are warranted.  Trump didn't just express his opinion that flag protestors should be fired, but in my opinion actually tried to influence NFL bosses to fire their players.  So yeah, people should protest.  And other people's knee-jerk objection to their very appropriate protest exposes another problem which is the intellectual laziness that has resulted in a lot of our political problems.  For years, people have just let themselves believe that the soldiers are the only true American heroes, and that people like workers or taxpayers or even children don't also contribute to our society in heroic ways, and that the flag doesn't and shouldn't also represent them.  So if someone suggests that there may be some problems represented by that flag, people automatically say that the wounded veterans are the ones being disrespected.  But really, the protestors are defending the true value that the flag should have represented, and in that way are supporting the veterans by trying to insure that their sacrifice is not in vain.
  A lot has already been said about all of this, but I did feel like sharing this opinion, because I have always been aware as a low paid retail worker that some people's contributions to our society are celebrated and some people don't even earn a living wage while their companies rake in millions of dollars of profit from their labor, which then goes to pay the salaries of people who are declared heroes as soon as they sign up for service.  But there are a lot of heroes, and sports stars who have overcome great odds do stand for something too and are right to protect everyone when some loser threatens to take away everything they have earned.