Every time we tune into watch a football game these days, we are faced with the possibility of a player(s) kneeling during the National Anthem.

Making it worse, the media begins salivating at the mouth when it happens because they can not wait to put it on air.

Through the remaining part of the day, social media explodes with opinions for and against the actions of the over-paid athletes who have the freedom to play the sport because of the brave men and women who fought for the flag in which they kneel before.

Personally, I choose to ignore their antics. I don’t lose any sleep over it because the more we fuss and fight about it, the more flames will go on the fire, leading to more disrespect for the flag of our nation.

Yes, it appears that I am opinionated and sharing it with you, but only to bring us to my next point.

Monday, I chose not to watch the morning news just because of their love of sharing videos of athletes not standing for our flag.

I went to McDonald’s for my morning coffee and was asked by my friend Harold if I had seen the news that morning. I told him I had not.

He went on to tell me about the shooting in Las Vegas the night before and the terrible evil that had occurred, taking the lives of many and injuring many, many others.

While no one wants to hear of such terrible things, I became upset that I wasn’t aware just because of the football players not wanting to respect the flag. That was my own fault, for letting it get to me.

Just overnight, the news media had something new, although tragic, to fill their screens.

Don’t get me wrong, I fully appreciated their coverage of the event and I watched it for hours, including the somber message from President Donal Trump.

I was saddened, however, that it took something meaningful to get us to forget something that is so meaningless.

Once again, we are all together and standing together.

Stand for your flag or don’t. I don’t care, because I will always stand and salute the flag of the greatest country in the world.

You have the right to choose not to stand, I know that. But the fact you have that right is reason enough to stand.

One of my heroes, Jim Brown, is a strong activist against inequality.

Prior to the start of the 2017 NFL season, he had this to say: “I’m going to give you the real deal: I’m an American. I don’t desecrate my flag and my national anthem. I’m going to work within those situations. But this is my country, and I’ll work on the problems, but I’ll do it in an intelligent fashion.”

As for me, I’ll continue to have my morning coffee with Harold, Carl, Tim, Mikey, Bobby and Oscar and, together, we will pray for a healing of our nation and the coming together of all of its people.

We must stand together to remain as strong as we are. God bless the USA and all of its people.

Political enthusiast Will Collins is a lifelong resident of Kentucky and has called Winchester his home for the past 20 years. He can be reached at wrcollins70@gmail.com