President's comments are a familiar echo

We seem to again be hearing the message of "America, love it or leave it." That quote springs from a time of supreme division in America. How unnecessary all that was. I'm referring of course to the Viet Nam war which dominated the 1960s.
The quote comes to mind as a result of the president's comments on several fronts, but mostly in the realm of pro sports. There, that will get everyone's attention. As if the Charlottesville statements weren't enough, the president now complains about how NFL owners ought to "fire" players who don't stand properly for the national anthem.
All of us should have been asking for a long time: why is the national anthem played before sports events? It's a song that promotes a superficial type of patriotism. The subject matter of the song is war - it glorifies war. Musicians will tell you the song is flawed because it requires too wide a vocal range to sing.
The president - I don't want to dignify him by typing his name - seizes on the controversy to ram home what got him elected: division and race-based suspicion. Suspicion of Barack Obama's birth certificate was a ticket allowing him into the arena in the first place. The racism was always veiled, to be sure. Oh, so thinly veiled that we all ought to be ashamed of ourselves. We all knew what was going on.  White people were trying to seize power back, as if they'd ever lost a legitimate political voice. Republicans formed an unholy alliance with our current president because they felt he could facilitate their normal agenda. Republicans could count on all the racists and fundamentalist Christians to be receptive, even though the real "prize" for Republicans would be their usual assortment. It was a matter of forming a coalition which is what politics is always about.
Thom Hartman has said that Republicans court the anti-abortion people even though Republicans in their own mind "don't give a rat's patootie" about the issue. Republicans scream about how we need to prevent "socialism" in health care even though Obamacare isn't about socialism, it's about allowing the insurance industry to continue its primacy. The insurance industry has come out against the current Republican (DOA) proposal because of its fear that the scheme would fail, and if it fails, then presto! The public will agitate for single payer which would really torpedo the insurance industry's aims.
Single payer is coming anyway. Charles Krauthammer of Fox News says as much - he estimates about seven years until it comes.
What are we to make of the NFL players taking a knee? A bigger issue is what this game does to the health of everyone who plays it. We just learned about the effects of CTE on the late Aaron Hernandez. The NFL is a mammoth entertainment product that keeps the game high-profile and promotes high interest among boys. Boys feel the invulnerability of youth. They really need parents steering them away from the game. Some are in fact doing this. It seems that most chafe at the suggestions I'm making. They seem glib and flippant about rationalizing the game. In the short term they find enjoyment and maybe even some community building. It's horrific because they seem to find it acceptable to downplay the health effects on kids.
Football rolls on as this monster we can't seem to stop. It took several years but I'm at the point where all I do with televised football is to check the score occasionally. I swear I never watch for an extended time anymore. I root against the U of M Gophers because I hate how we use that program, infusing tons of money into it, to puff up our egos so we might feel better about being here. Oh, remember that old message that was once so conspicuous at the Metrodome: "We like it here." Bill James said he found that sign "curiously defensive." It was as if we were saying "we don't care what everyone else thinks," James pointed out.
I don't want the Vikings to win. The Pittsburgh game indicated we might not have much to worry about on that score. Things got better Sunday. I read that when Teddy Bridgewater got hurt, it was so severe, his leg "almost came off." That'd be worse than Joe Theismann. Why can't all of us find better things to do with our time?
So the president seems to be saying "America, love it or leave it." I remember that John Wayne had a record album called "America, Why I Love Her." That was the Lawrence Welk generation talking. I hate to re-visit all of that. But re-visiting it we are, thanks to the Ken Burns documentary on Viet Nam. I watched a large portion but not the whole thing. Did it ever get into "fragging?" Eventually I just had to turn away.
My generation never much cared about the details or the history of why we were in Viet Nam. Wasn't there a song with the lyrics "don't tell me I don't give a damn." A young man in America had no reason to want to know who Ho Chi Minh was and what he stood for. That young man would want to live the American dream, to be productive and raise a family, not to risk his life in a dismal foreign jungle. Kids today give no thought, I'm sure, to what it was like to fear being drafted and sent to Viet Nam.
I switched away from the Burns documentary because of a veteran being interviewed, a vet who struck me as insincere and suspicious, acting like he just wanted to put on a big show for Ken Burns. I cared not about his recollections even if genuine. I found it annoying to listen to some background music of songs associated with the whole 1960s zeitgeist, like by Simon and Garfunkel. Was the documentary encouraging nostalgia? If it was, it was unforgivable. First off, those songs were composed by music professionals who were exercising professional music craftsmanship. Songwriters may talk about inspiration but it's really about professional craftsmanship.
Soldiers in the hellhole weren't thinking about Simon and Garfunkel. They were cannon fodder in the bright, shining lie of Viet Nam. I really don't care to recall it at all.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwillyh73@yahoo.com