title:  Derby Event Asks Crowd To Stand For Confederate Flag, Forcing Police Officer To Sit During National Anthem
text: It s one thing to have a choice to sit to during the national anthem, but it s something else entirely when one is forced to do so.Prior to a demolition derby event in West Jordan, Utah, police officer Daniel Argueta and his family were forced to sit during the Star Spangled Banner because the truck carrying the American flag also carried a Confederate flag, which Stirrin  Dirt Racing owner Jim Simko blamed on  helpers  by claiming it was added shortly before the anthem.But that s not true according to Argueta, who says the Confederate flag was positioned on the truck a full hour before the anthem took place. In other words, there was plenty of time to remove the flag but it wasn t.As a result, the crowd was asked to stand and salute a racist flag of traitors alongside the stars and stripes.And that s why Argueta and his family chose to sit instead. You kind of get caught in, yes, you want to stand, you support the U.S. flag,  Argueta told KSTU-TV.  You support the troops, you support police officers, but what is the Confederate flag doing there? For anybody that knows history and understands the negative impact of that flag and how it s been used historically, it s hard to stand up. The Confederate flag has drawn much outrage in recent years, especially after white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine black parishioners at a church in South Carolina. The state finally removed the Confederate flag that had been flying for decades outside the statehouse, which had been raised in protest of civil rights.Simko tried to excuse the presence of the Confederate flag by arguing that people should be free to fly it. It wasn t politically correct, I m sure, for some people, but there s some people who look at that flag and say this is the land of the free,  Simko said.  It shouldn t have happened, but I can t, unfortunately, watch what everybody does at every minute. Again, Simko had 60 minutes to make sure it didn t happen and he did nothing. Also, individuals have the freedom to fly the flag all they want on their private property. But this event forced people to salute a flag that had no business flying during our national anthem. It was humiliating,  Argueta said. It was demeaning, because with all the controversy going on with the flag recently and people sitting during the anthem, we had all intended to stand, but we couldn t. People probably looked around, probably wondering what we were doing. Here s the video via KSTU.The reason why athletes such as Colin Kaepernick are sitting during the national anthem is because they are protesting police brutality and racial inequality. They have the right to make that choice and so far it has brought attention to the issues they want to highlight.Of course, if a pastor in Alabama had his way, the Argueta family and all of these athletes would be lined up against a wall and executed for not standing, thus demonstrating that conservatives don t really understand what freedom is at all.Featured image via Deseret News