One hundred years ago, President Woodrow Wilson made the fateful decision to enter the U.S. into the Great War. The decision to “defend democracy” changed this country, and the world, forever. Even though the racist epic “Birth of Nation” enjoyed rave reviews, even from the White House, and publicly revived the Ku Klux Klan, blacks across this land saw another opportunity to demonstrate their love for this country.

Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation brought blacks into the US military, not as equals, but as needed manpower. Soon known as Buffalo Soldiers, black soldiers served with distinction in the Spanish American War and World Wars I and II. All this while living under the oppressive yoke of racist Jim Crow policies in the so-called “home of the free – land of the brave.”

Nonetheless, when Europe erupted in war and the call went out for defenders of democracy, more than 300,000 blacks answered. Wilson sought to not only defend democracy, but create a separate entity that would prevent such horrors of war in the future. But the President forgot a simple axiom familiar to most Christians: Charity begins at home.

While trying to make the world safe for democracy Wilson forgot to make the U.S. safe for blacks. History records the valor with which black servicemen fought in Europe under the banner of the American flag but returned home to be lynched and abused under the same representation of freedom.

So now, 100 years later, one has to wonder what all the fuss is about with Colin Kaepernick and others who knelt to remind this country that we still have a long way to go to live up to Thomas Jefferson’s immortal words:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Too many refuse to acknowledge the continuing racial disparities in this society and would rather deflect by accusing those seeking to bring attention to the problems as somehow being disloyal to the flag and what this country stands for. I find that insulting. As a military veteran, I swore an oath to defend this Constitution, even as my father did and his father before him. But I was well aware that there were certain places in my hometown I dared not go into for fear of being harassed or killed.

Still, I wore the uniform with pride. As a result, I consider it an offense to question the loyalty of blacks in this country considering how many sacrificed, and continue to sacrifice, their very lives so that all Americans can enjoy the very privileges Wilson sought to defend 100 years ago. So that begs the question: Am I good enough to fight for the flag, but not good enough to enjoy the benefits of what it represents?

Maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised. After all, slavery was well entrenched when Jefferson wrote those immortal words in 1776; and the flag was not the vile Bars and Stars of the Confederacy, but the Stars and Stripes of the United States of America.

By the way, has anybody seen the President’s tax returns? Hmm.

Talk to you soon.