As a US Army Veteran I Love America and I honor the flag but Human rights iin the United states are secondary to meaningless rhetoric. Every Black, Hispanic, Muslim and Asian Veteran has a story of discrimination, bigotry, racism and hatred.
On Monday Americans will celebrate Memorial Day. Most think of it as the opening of the summer season but this holiday has a more serious meaning. It is a day to honor the memories of those who lost their lives in battle. We honor the soldiers and sailors who died defending the United States.
Being a U.S. Army Veteran I am very sensitive to the issue of African American Sports players taking a knee for democracy. Those many especially white Americans see this as unpatriotic I on the other hand see it as the height of Democracy. The right to peacefully protest. The American Flag is a symbol of what Democracy is supposed to be however most African Americans do not share the same rights, opportunities and access to uplift ourselves that our white counterparts take for granted.
Please refer to a post that I wrote last year about what or who does the American Flag represent.
Also another thing that most Americans don’t know is that in almost every American War Black soldiers have for Double V ~~ Victory overseas and Victory at home against racism which is ingrained in America like a festering wound. For white Americans when they hear of the many Black men and women murdered by the police or some insane white man with an assault rifle (The nine Black parishioners who were killed during a Bible Study) well for white people it’s just entertainment. For us it’s our very lives. Our precious family members. Our Loved ones. Sadly given my age I will never live to see Dr. Martin Luther King’s Dream come true. White Americans have the luxury of avoiding conversations on race but for me it is an every day affair navigating a white world where I am despised and hated based only on my skin color.
Let me give you a story that my Father Edward G. Palmer who served during the Korean War told me.
While my Dad was in Washington, DC he was hungry and went to a local vendor/restaurant to get a hot dog. My Dad was in his Air-force uniform when he tried to order his hot dog. The man behind the counter told him, “We don’t serve Niggers.”
Fast forward to 2018 and the two Black men who asked politely to use the bathroom in Starbucks and were denied while white people were allowed to used the restroom. These gentlemen decided to sit and wait on a friend. A white female employee who in her own deviant mind felt threatened by two Black men quietly sitting at the table awaiting a friend decided to call they police and make up a story to get them arrested.
Keep the truth in mind. Black Americans can bleed and die for this country but we are not permitted to even sit down in a popular well-known coffee shop where it is normal for folks to gather and sit.
So nothing has changed for Black people in America from the 1950s when my Dad was denied the right to eat up until 2018 when Black people are still being denied the right to eat or just plain live our lives.
I know that I will probably get some white backlash for bringing up these issues however I really don’t care about white folks opinions. Any one who reads this blog knows that I’m mostly writing for a Black audience. As a U.S. Army Veteran I 100% support the Black Sports men and women who take a knee for Democracy. Double V ~~ Victory in war. Victory at home!
Also I’m unashamedly and unapologeticly Black first and foremost!
Madison Square Park and the Surrounding Neighborhood
Whose Flag? The flag that ignited the Trail of Tears and condemned my Native American Ancestors far from their Promised Land?
The Flag that ignited Manifest Destiny and stole, robbed, cheated and raped millions of Indigenous peoples to broken treaties, destruction and death.
The Flag that ignited the slave ships of the Middle Passage where my African Ancestors were kidnapped from the Motherland. Denied their heritage. Their religion. Their customs and traditions. And what of those thrown overboard as so much excess baggage. Or the others who jumped rather than condemn generations to slavery and Jim Crow.
The Flag that ignited the Dred Scott decision telling us we are only 3/5ths of a man? Where are we in the signing of the Declaration of Independence? Do you see any Native or African Americans in those paintings? Not even any women! So do we salute a flag, a symbol of colonialism, slavery, Jim Crow and racism? Since we were not included by the Founding Fathers most of whom were slave owners?
Do we honor a flag that forced my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents to get off the sidewalk when white people approached? Get to the back of the bus. Settle for sub-standard schools and housing. Forced sterilization which was done throughout the Southern Bible Belt states.
The flag of Dixie-crat racist Strom Thurmond whose death revealed the Black Daughter he had kept hidden for nearly 70 years?
Read the story of Fanny Lou Hamer one of the Mothers of the Civil Rights Movement.
What of our white Sisters and brothers like Murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner up to and including Heather Heyer? White Americans who fought evil and lost their lives. Does the flag represent them?
Does this flag represent the two Indian engineers who were murdered or the Chinese doctor who was dragged from his airplane seat?
Did that flag represent the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
What of the Japanese Americans who were stripped of all their worldly goods and sent to camps just because they resembled the enemy? And By the Way who is our enemy?
What of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama–a church with a predominantly black congregation that served as a meeting place for civil rights leaders where Four young girls were brutally killed.
What of the the nine who were murdered last year in South Carolina during a Bible study by one whom they welcomed as a fellow Christian but who turned out to be a demon.
Tell me again why I should put my hand over my heart or in my case salute since I am a U.S. Army Veteran for this flag. This flag who denied my Korean War Veteran Dad who was in uniform and hungry. Who tried to get a hot dog and the white man said we don’t serve Niggers?
Tell me why this flag and this country whom my Great, Great Grandfather William Henry Halstead who fought in the Civil War still denies it’s promise to me and all his descendants?
Did and was this flag the covering for the slave master who barged into my Great, Great, great, great Grandmother’s slave cabin late at night and forced himself on her?
Did and was this flag the covering and excuse for the Married Redneck Drill Sgt coming to my barracks and calling my name after hours?
Tell me again why we honor this flag and why does this cloth not live up to it’s promise to ALL Americans?
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Espiritu en Fuego/A Fiery Spirit 