Nena Weighs in on President Trump's NFL Comments

From the editor:  My wife Nena frequently feels frustrated because she can't comment on this blog, having lost the ability to read and write because of her strokes.  

Typically, she will say:  "You know how I feel, just sign my name to it."

But, when I read back to her what I've written, I get: "That's not how I talk.  Can you write it more plainly?"

So, I give you Nena's comment:

When I heard Donald Trump call NFL players who knelt during the national anthem "sons of bitches" and call for team owners to "fire" them, I thought about my dad, Manuel Perez, who enlisted in the U.S. Army during WWII to fight for rights protected in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

With my dad in the army, our family seldom stayed in Brownsville long, following him twice to Germany during our school years.  I ended up graduating from Copperas Cove High School as my dad was then stationed in Killeen.

After graduation, I joined the army, serving from 1963-66.  

My two younger brothers, Johnny and Manuel, also joined the army.  Johnny was a helicopter pilot in Viet Nam, surviving at least one crash, with Manuel serving in Germany during roughly the same years.

My dad retired from the army after 30 years and then worked in the Border Patrol for 10 years.

President Donald Trump, around the same age as my brothers and I, after his college years, received a "minor medical deferment" for bone spurs in both heels.  He did not serve in the military.

Later, in an interview, Trump referred to his single years  and his efforts to "avoid STD's" as his "personal Vietnam."

Trump's lack of military service does not take away his right to free speech, but he has no right to interfere with other citizens exercising theirs. His reference to the mothers of these players, protesting the unfair treatment of blacks in our country, as "bitches" only makes the racial division worse.


Nena