National Anthem Protests and Raisin Booger Putty

I know everyone is sick of the subject of the NFL and National Anthem kneeling but after this weekend, it appears that this story isn’t going away any time soon so let’s get into it.

I’ve been thinking about this National Anthem kneel business a lot and with protests in general and I have an analogy that might be useful in finding common ground with friends and family on one side of this issue or the other.

I love my kids. 

I’m not going to say I love them more or less than another parent loves their kids because that argument is impossible to prove.  It is impossible to quantify and measure one’s love for somebody or something as everybody is different and expresses love in different ways. 

Let’s just say I love my kids like a typical parent loves their kids.

My son, Jackson, likes raisins.  But Jackson has this unfortunate habit of sometimes taking a raisin and just WORKING it into our shag carpet rug, fusing individual strands of carpet hairs with this unholy raisin booger putty.  It’s gross.  I stumble upon these landmines from time to time and it drives me crazy.

Jackson gets scolded for this.  Sometimes he gets a timeout.  Sometimes he gets his raisins taken away.  Sometimes we let it slide.  I don’t know the best way to eliminate these demon rug boogers.

But I still love him.   And I don’t love him more or less than his sister Addy because he works raisin devil glue into our carpet and she doesn’t.  We’re just doing our best to guide him.  Maybe there’s a better way but I don’t have all the answers.

My point is this:  You should always wear shoes when you come over to visit us.

My second point is that you can protest a cause AND still love your country.  They are not mutually exclusive.  Let’s start thinking of creative ways to solve problems together instead of fighting over who loves America more.