September 10, 2019: Signs and symbols of sovereignty * Letter to the Editor * OPINION * Del Rio News-Herald

Letter to the Editor,

Signs and symbols of sovereignty

It is interesting to note that Hong Kong which finds itself in the throes of further impingement by the government of Communist China of overturning some vestiges of its former sovereignty, finds itself rallying in public protest utilizing the signs and symbols of the United States of America.

Yet in the United States, it is ironic that some Americans are dishonoring and wanting to divest themselves from those very signs and symbols that are recognized worldwide as representing democracy and freedom.

Among the millions of Hong Kong protestors there were some who were proudly waving the flag of the United States of America and singing the “Star Spangled Banner” the national anthem of the United States of America.

And yet at the same time in the United States of America, we find some, mostly prominent athletes and rich and famous elites, who are dishonoring and disgracing that very same flag by refusing to stand and instead kneeling, when the flag is posted and the National Anthem is sung.

Those Americans who refuse to stand and honor the selfless sacrifice fought for by our forbearers have been given the right to protest because this is a free country.

In a way, the American protestors are showing the world that freedom still rings in the United States of America, because they have the right to peacefully protest and the government will not arrest them or punish them.

The Hong Kong protesters sang the Christian hymn “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord” composed by American Linda Stassen-Benjamin in 1974 and congregated in public Christian prayer meetings because under Hong Kong's Public Order Ordinance, religious gatherings are exempt from the definition of an "assembly" and are therefore more difficult to police.

With Christianity and patriotism in decline in the United States, the converse is occurring in Hong Kong.

With the signs and symbols of freedom and democracy under attack in the United States of America, Hong Kong citizens are courageously and publicly demonstrating with those very same signs and symbols.

Marian Casillas, Ed.D.

Del Rio, Texas