America is the land of the free.

As Betsy Ross once said, “The American flag is an enduring symbol of liberty, democracy, and justice.” North Korea, on the other hand, is the land of enslavement. Whatever its purported original symbolism, the North Korean flag stands for the inhumane and total human subjugation through thought suppression, torture and the horrors in gulags of the most totalitarian state in the world.

In Singapore on June 11, 2018, Kim Jong Un and Donald Trump were photographed shaking hands for North Koreans and the rest of the world to see in front of a row of American and North Korean Flags.

It is hard to imagine a sight more repulsively discordant than one that projects the remotest equivalence between two countries, one of which strives to live up to the ideals of 1776 and the other which has succeeded in making a reality of Orwell’s “1984.”

Any American responsible for allowing such a travesty does not have the moral standing to demagogue, condemn and punish Americans who take a knee – not to disrespect the values for which our beloved flag stands, but to challenge us all to more fully live up to those values, including our constitutionally protected freedom of expression and Good Lord, the right of mothers not have their babies stripped away from them while breast-feeding.

Repression of freedom of speech is part of daily existence in North Korea. Such repression is a complete perversion of what it means to be an American. Here, in the United States, we pledge ourselves strive for “freedom, and justice for all.” Their flag is red, white and blue. Our flag is red, white and blue.

Other than that, they have absolutely nothing else in common.

Tim Mannello

Williamsport

Submitted by E-Mail