Dear Editor:

Joey Gibson shouts at freedom rallies, ”Free speech or die! You got no safe place. This is America.” Others shout “No Gun laws! You got no safe place. This is America.”

Politicians propose “No Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid,” which again offers “No safe place, no honor to elders, no integrity, and no one to trust” in America.

A country that screams “You got no safe place” is not great.  A country that does not protect its children is not great.  A country that does not honor its elders is not great.  Nowhere in the constitution can I find that to live in America I must accept that life is not valued, that safety of lives is no longer provided, leaving a shouted conclusion that no life is safe in America.

In the midst of all of these shouts and proposals, we also have many who do not understand our right to kneel before God while others sing the anthem. They are unaware of Christian religions that may love their country but are not allowed to worship their country and have the right to stand in the room without saying the pledge of allegiance while others do repeat the pledge of allegiance.

It is hard for me to understand why a leader uses hate speech when someone kneels in prayer before God.  Perhaps if they had seen the police video that I saw, they would feel compelled as I would to take a kneel seeking God’s guidance in finding forgiveness for the police officer’s shout at an unarmed, handcuffed, man that he was “going to blow your (expletive) head off which he did. 

If I had seen that video and was then at the ballpark, I would choose to take a kneel every time because questionable police shootings have continued, and I do not live in a communist country.  I live in a democracy, which has constitutional rights, including the right to kneel before God and pray for a safer America.

Jarryl Larson

Edgecomb