I was watching the Olympic Games tonight, and was quite proud to see Shaun White win the gold medal. I was not aware of his recent injuries, etc. However, I couldn't help but notice thereafter, that Mr. White carried the American flag over his back for a moment, and then drug it along the ground, occasionally stepping on it.
I am not one who is given to empty sentimentality, and this is an action from which I would personally refrain. I do wonder, however, whether the Tweeter in Chief will have something to say about this. This was, by any metric, a casual disregard for the traditional understanding of "respect" for an American symbol. I don't believe that Mr. White meant to make any sort of a protest against America and I certainly don't dispute his right to do so if that was his intent. I just wonder whether this will engender the type of controversy that Colin Kapernick did.
It's not like Shaun White knelt during the National Anthem to protest the killing of people who looked like him by people who didn't in the name of the government that purported to represent him.
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