Should Military (Active Duty, Reservist & Guard) be allowed to "sit", in support of personal beliefs, during the National Anthem?

SGT Higginbotham, first, allow me to say that I am impressed at the intestinal fortitude that you're choosing to show by taking a stance that may seem contrary to some at first glance. I see what you're trying to say with your point regarding service members being the first to receive that which they put their lives on the line for. There are many times I feel the same way.

The unfortunate reality of our military is that those that choose to serve will have to live with a curtailment of their Constitutional rights in order to guarantee the rights of others. What I mean by this is that, as a civilian, your freedom of speech (short of yelling fire in a theater) is nearly sacrosanct. Telling your CO / NCO support channel what you really think of the latest good idea fairy to come down the pipes is probably going to fly like a lead balloon.

You can probably also see the argument against a group of junior enlisted gathering outside the Division HQ to picket for a 'livable wage', even if it is their right to peacefully assemble. While most of us don't really like doing a health & welfare on our joes, we've all seen the reasoning behind doing it as well (4th Amendment proponents are usually up in arms about this one).

The list goes on and on brother. Like I said, there's been many a time where I would simply shake my head and mutter under my breath about the rights a service member has to give up, but there are other times that I can see the wisdom in the decision. Food for thought.

SSG (Join to see) - You're right, it is unfortunate. It's an unfortunate reality that I've lived with ever since the day I first signed up. I don't like it, not one little bit, but it's a sacrifice that I've been willing to make *so far.* I can accept the reasoning behind it, to a point. Sometimes it gets downright stupid, though. Just my $0.02.

Part of being a patriot is also acknowledging your country's flaws and working to correct them, not just "going full 'Murika" just because someone is in the military. And why is everybody's quick-fix "if you have a problem with America, you can always leave?" I was born and raised here, and make no mistake; I love this country but we also have a *LOT* of things that need fixing.

We heard a lot of "Love it or leave it" in response to protests during the Vietnam war. It's the bumper sticker of a nationalist; not a patriot, much like the "My country, right or wrong" abbreviation of a much longer quote. The full quotation says something quite different: "The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by exclaiming, 'My country, right or wrong.' In one sense I say so too. My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." (Senator CARL SCHURZ, remarks in the Senate, February 29, 1872, The Congressional Globe, vol. 45, p. 1287.) This means that if we see something in our country that needs to be changed or fixed, the patriotic duty of an American is to speak out, to protest and to argue until the wrong is corrected; not to sit quietly in hopes that someday it'll fix itself. If the only acceptable response to seeing injustices and wrongs is to either ignore them or leave, our nation has failed as a free state.