Dear Editor,
I was proud to be part of the No Kings protest, and glad to see such a large turnout at the Burlington waterfront. But I was uncomfortable with all of the Palestinian flags.
The point of this demonstration was to protest what is happening here. By including all these flags, it made demonstrators feel like they were also endorsing a position in support of Palestine.
There are many bad things happening in the world including a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. But if one polled the demonstrators, I doubt there is a broad consensus as to what the United States should do. And what about Ukraine? If we wanted to expand the demonstration to world events, why weren’t there any Ukrainian flags?
It is imperative that we continue to advocate and demonstrate for world peace. But, that is not why we showed up on June 14. We came to protest the unconscionable things happening in the United States, nicely captured in the slogan “No Kings”. For this protest, we should be waving American flags.
John H. Vogel Jr.
Williston
