What is becoming abundantly clear to the inhabitants of planet Earth is that one man taking a knee in stony silence during the playing of the US national anthem at a sporting event, speaks louder than the massed voices of thousands of others lustily singing along to the “Star-Spangled Banner”. One wonders what would have happened had a German boy of immense personal courage done the same during a rendition of the “Horst-Wessel-Lied” at one of Hitler’s rallies. I would bet that he would not have done it a second time and to be referred to as a “son of a bitch” would have been the least of his worries.

Nevertheless, it seems to me, that to so patently remain silent at a time when there is an expectation, nay, almost a demand for standing and singing along with your brothers, is another form of the exercise of freedom of expression and as such is guaranteed by the US Constitution to be free from governmental opprobrium. Thus for the President of the United States to call such activists “sons of bitches” and to demand that they are fired by their employers is nothing less than a deplorable insult to the Constitution. Maybe it is the former TV performer that ought to be fired.