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There is no rule in any sport that requires public demonstrations of patriotism (“Women’s soccer team refuses to honor U.S.,” Star-Advertiser, Letters, July 26). Excelling in a sport does not entail surrendering one’s right to an opinion or a mode of expressing it. On the contrary, exercising that right is in itself patriotic, as it is one of the “freedoms hard-earned” referred to by the letter’s author.
An obligation to salute and sing a song of devotion to a decorated piece of cloth sounds to me more cultish than genuinely expressive of patriotic sentiment. To compel such behavior smacks of totalitarianism.
U.S. citizens do not have to feel “blessed” to have been born here. Neither must they leave it if they don’t like it; they are free to help shape it into a society that they feel proud of and to which they’d gladly sing a love song.
Frances Jones
Moiliili
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