I don’t understand the hate for people kneeling.  Our country was founded on the condition that we will always preserve the right to call our government on its bullshit.  Here is an artist’s rendition of the Bill of Rights so you can see what I mean:

1. Complain about shit
2. Keep guns to shoot shit when complaining stops working
3. Your house is your house, no Airforcebnb
4. You really need to fuck up before we check your pockets * (depreciated)
5. You always get a trial * (depreciated)
6. Your trial will be fast, and we’ll make sure it’s fair * (depreciated)
7. Your trial will be held in front of a jury *
8. Bail and punishments will be reasonable *
9. We can’t use the Constitution to fuck you
10. If the feds don’t have a law for it, the states can do what they want

Full text

* – Except in military matters and—since 2001—matters of “national security”

There are thousands of people that died to get this country its independence, and at that time those were the most important items they could think of to ensure they wouldn’t have to do it again.  While we’ve since added and removed and reworded to shore up the gap of time (as well as their ignorance and prejudices) the idea really hasn’t changed: This country will run on checks and balances.

On paper we have the three branches checking on each other, the states and the fed checking on each other, and the citizens and the government checking on each other.  But we’re not letting that happen anymore.  By screaming ALL LIVES MATTER or BERNIE CAN’T WIN or DON’T BE A CRIMINAL YOU WON’T GET SHOT over anyone who claims this country isn’t perfect we’re removing the part where the government needs to respond to its citizens.

Of course we can discuss the merits of the complaints, but it needs to be constructive.  Telling an entire youth football game that anyone who kneels for the national anthem should be lined up and shot isn’t constructive.

The complaints are valid though.  Stealing a car isn’t supposed to be a death sentence.  Selling cigarettes tax free isn’t supposed to be a death sentence.  Raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster isn’t supposed to be a 3 month suspension of freedom.  Getting pulled over shouldn’t be a death sentence.  Having a shitty car, or grabbing your wallet when told to, or cursing at police at a protest, either.  To be fair, these incidents may have been handled differently if they were mass murders.

It needs to respond.

Petitions.WhiteHouse.gov is cute but I don’t think the Whitehouse has the power to bring back Firefly, and honestly they have more “important” issues at hand.  But they’ll never have to listen to us if we spend all of our time beating each other up.

To those who claim we must stand to respect everyone that died fighting for us, don’t.  Respect them by using the tools they provided to voice our opinion.  Don’t try and shout over unrest because it makes you question your worldview, embrace that feeling and find out WHY it makes you so upset.  Besides, these protests aren’t going away any time soon, start working on having empathy for other races, genders, orientations, and financial classes because we don’t all experience the same kind of America, and simply standing isn’t enough anymore.

Written by Nick Sequeira
@TheStubbyTech
NickSequeira.com