first, the appropriate title to the deceased military member is SGT First Class!
second, the time to pay respects to SFC Ofren Arrechaga was in 2011, condolences are now appropriate to his family.
third, a minor correction & historical perspective background to the moderator and their sentiment was understood..
The phrase "all gave some; some gave all" is widely attributed to the Korean War veteran and purple heart recipient Howard William Osterkamp from Dent, Ohio. Osterkamp served in the Army from 1951 to 1953, during which he experienced heavy combat in Korea with his unit, the C Company, 5th Regimental Combat.
fourth, since we were speaking about history, let's examine the song individuals have since before "Even baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson — complicated political history aside — couldn’t bring himself to sing the national anthem or salute the flag and when Olympic sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith won gold and bronze medals for the United States at the 1968 Olympic Games, raised their black-gloved fists as The Star-Spangled Banner was played, and were expelled by the International Olympic Committee.
The Star-Spangled Banner is actually four verses long, though, and features lyrics that go beyond what we’re used to hearing at presidential inaugurations, military ceremonies and sporting events.
Though the well-known first verse, “in which a young man peers into a foggy and rain-soaked dawn to find out whether his country has been conquered in battle, is urgent, open-hearted and honest,” the third verse all but contradicts any meaning of a “land of the free” and “home of the brave” (emphasis mine (authors)):
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
The War of 1812 was caused, among other things, by Great Britain’s attempt to restrict U.S. trade and America’s desire to expand its northern territory by annexing Canada. By 1810, more than 15 percent of the U.S. population was enslaved, and British forces recruited escaped slaves to fight for the slaves’ freedom against the American militia. This unit, referred to as the Colonial Marines, was part of the British forces that overran Washington, D.C., in 1814 and set fire to the White House.
So when Key references the “foul footstep’s” of the “hireling and slave” who “no refuge could save” from “the gloom of the grave” in the third verse, he’s referring to the killing of Colonial Marines. As noted by The Root political editor Jason Johnson, “The Star-Spangled Banner is as much a patriotic song as it is a diss track to black people who had the audacity to fight for their freedom.”
Key did not have a complicated or complex history with race. He “supported sending free blacks (not slaves) back to Africa and … was about as pro-slavery, anti-black and anti-abolitionist as you could get at the time,” Johnson wrote in his article for The Root. He owned slaves while writing the national anthem, at one point referring to blacks as “a distinct and inferior race of people.”
Though Key won several legal cases on behalf of slaves during the 18th century, 20 years after writing the national anthem, he is believed to be responsible for inciting the Snow Riot of 1835 with the overzealous prosecution of a young black man accused of trying to kill his mistress. According to Smithsonian, Key “used his office as the District Attorney for the City of Washington from 1833 to 1840 to defend slavery, attacking the abolitionist movement in several high-profile cases,” including an episode wherein he unsuccessfully sought to have a New York doctor hanged."
finally, this is a thread about NFL season opening and perceived disrespect to our national anthem; therefore, to post an abstract personal photo out of the blue without a point is strictly a emotionally based ploy which makes it extremely disrespectful to SFC Ofren Arrechaga's honorable memory and I am sure opens deep personal memories of his death to his partner as well as the struggles the family endured 6+ years ago and possibly continue to endure to this day.
disrespectful, i ask you please reconsider your criticism and direct it towards the truly pointless rationale the individual who posted it for ~ emotional play!
