Being serious is no fun at all. Usually I like to keep my topics local and keep them on the fun side, but every once in a while something happens outside the area that I feel compelled to comment on. Protesters at Valdosta University were walking on the American flag protesting something connected with slavery and the U.S. flag supporting slavery. Nothing I could understand. Along came an Air Force veteran who snatched up the flag and tried to walk away with it. The campus police tried to get her to give it back and when she refused, they put her in cuffs and took her away. The country is outraged and so am I.

But it’s me and I have a different take on it. While I was fortunate enough to not go to Vietnam, I served during that era. If you want to know about protests, that was the hot bed of protests.

We were instructed to not be seen in public in our uniforms because it was likely that someone would want to get us into a fight. And they did. Guys would stop for gas on their way home from the base and people would challenge them at the gas station. I was an equipment operator on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean and people were calling me Baby Killer.

That was not a pleasant time to be in the military.

The respect people have for the military today is wonderful, but people who weren’t around back in the day have no idea how far we’ve come.

Fast forward to the early years of this century and the Travelling Vietnam Wall came to Belfast. My team and I at MBNA put in several hours helping with the setup of the wall, and after putting that whole time of my life behind me for so many years, I decided to visit the wall. It was going to be an emotional visit because while I hadn’t served there, I had friends that did and some of them died.

When Kathy and I arrived, there were Vietnam War protesters at the entrance. More than 30 years after the war and people are still protesting. It brought back the memories of people spitting on people in uniform for no reason and fights started at gas stations just because a person was in uniform.

My visit to the traveling wall was tarnished by those protesters, but it also gave me pause to reflect.

I’m going to tell you right here that I struggle with this issue. I struggle with this issue a lot. The military defends the rights of the citizenry to speak freely, but then the citizenry protests the country that guarantees them that freedom. That word guarantee is important. We don’t just suggest that freedom. We don’t offer that freedom if it’s convenient, we guarantee it.

So back to Valdosta.

The Air Force veteran picked up the flag from the protesters and refused to give it back. Like it or not, the cops took her away and the situation was defused. To me that was the best way to get control of the situation. She wasn’t charged with anything and let go.

I suppose the protesters went back to walking on the flag, but even if their flag had left with the veteran, they probably would have gotten another flag and protested with that. This protest had been going on for three days. My guess is that they were getting press coverage and loving their 15 minutes of fame for something they should have been ashamed of.

As if this whole incident isn’t troubling enough on its own, there’s another wrinkle.

It seems that the Air Force veteran was demoted for “discrediting the armed forces” and later discharged for posing in Playboy wearing part of her uniform.

I’m a guy and during my military tour I had a subscription to Playboy and looked forward to it arriving in the mail as did the rest of the guys in the hut. Her picture in Playboy is very attractive. I don’t find offense with the use of the flag in that picture, but the Air Force did. And I guess they should have.

Now we’re back to freedom of speech and what’s right and what’s wrong. I really don’t know. Freedom of speech is in each individual’s heart and they should feel blessed that they have that freedom. Sometimes that freedom crosses a line that’s very vague. The only thing we can all be certain of is that when we cross that line, everybody knows it.

If I had been on that campus in Valdosta, Ga., and saw those kids trampling on that flag, I think I would probably have taken it away from them. But I didn’t pose in Playboy partially wearing my uniform. (Thank God for that.)

If the headline read “Sixty-six year old Vietnam Vet takes flag away from protesters” I’d be a hero. Probably the cops wouldn’t have cuffed me and taken me away because I wouldn’t have resisted. But I wasn’t there. She was. She did what she believed in, but as difficult as it may be for some to stomach, she served her country so that those protesters could have that freedom. I’m glad I served, but I’ve struggled with this subject since the 1960s.