Most Americans see standing or kneeling for the National Anthem as a simple response to these questions.\u00a0 Do you support our men in women in uniform?\u00a0 Do you support those people who put themselves at risk to defend liberty and freedom?\u00a0 Do you support America; the American Flag; the American Dream; American democracy?<\/p>\n
Do you support the ideal that your vote matters, that you can vote for everyone who governs you \u2013 mayor, county commissioner, state representative, U.S. senator, president of the United States.\u00a0 In other words: that as an American Citizen you have a vote and a voice?<\/p>\n
If you answered \u201cyes\u201d to those questions, well, thank you for being a red-blooded American.\u00a0 But you have a job to do.\u00a0 Next time you stand for the American Flag, while giving thanks for this great country, you should think about those American Citizens who strangely (and wrongfully) have been denied fundamental American rights.<\/p>\n
Yes, it is true.\u00a0 American Citizens still exist who are robbed of their most fundamental American right \u2013 the right to vote for the government that governs them.\u00a0 There are nearly five million American Citizens living on American soil in Puerto Rico, Washington D.C., the United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa and the North Marianna Islands who have no voting representation in Congress and no vote for president.<\/p>\n
What is more amazing is that the rate of military service in these American Territories is higher than in most States.\u00a0 For example, Oklahoma, Connecticut and Iowa each have roughly the same population as Puerto Rico.\u00a0 Yet, person for person, Puerto Rico has a higher rate of military service \u2013 and correspondingly higher rate of death, disfigurement, and injury for its military veterans in service to the United States.<\/p>\n
The grave stones of brave American Citizens from American Territories are found in Europe, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.\u00a0 Yet, for those American citizen soldiers from American Territories \u2013 unlike every other soldier from a State \u2013 cannot vote for anyone in Congress or the president.\u00a0 They are deprived of the very rights that the United States fights wars to protect \u2013 democracy, voting rights, government of the people, by the people, for the people.<\/p>\n
Next time when you stand for the Flag, remember that same American flag flies high over the American Territories with American citizens living there.\u00a0 Having a second-class citizenry with no vote taints American as a whole.\u00a0 We are one people – e pluribus unum<\/em>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to criticize one football player kneeling.\u00a0 But as President Theodore Roosevelt once said, it is not the critic, but the man in the arena that matters.\u00a0 That person kneeling is challenging us.\u00a0 President Donald Trump has said that we should focus on America.\u00a0 Let\u2019s do that \u2013 let us put our house in order.\u00a0 Let us start by eliminating the second-class American citizenry. It\u2019s a disgrace and embarrassment to all of us. \u00a0And to make sure that it not just words, but action, here is my brief, but humble plan:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Submitted on Monday by:<\/strong> Russell Pate, an attorney in the U.S. Virgin Islands. On behalf of American citizens in the U.S. Virgin Islands, he filed two lawsuits for voting rights. Those lawsuits were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Most Americans see standing or kneeling for the National Anthem as a simple response to these questions.\u00a0 Do you support our men in women in uniform?\u00a0 Do you support those people who put themselves at risk to defend liberty and freedom?\u00a0 Do you support America; the American Flag; the American Dream; American democracy? Do you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":60488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,147],"tags":[68,3825],"yoast_head":"\n\n