My Fellow Americans

I have friends for whom kneeling for the national anthem is the height of disrespect, as well as friends who consider the American flag a symbol of naked imperialism and refuse to fly it.  You know what I call both kinds of friends?  I call them Americans.

What a country we live in, that we can disagree vehemently and in some cases violently, in which we must respect the totality of our honorable and despicable past in order to peaceably coexist in an uncertain and existing future.  Happy Fourth to all!