By Don Allen, Publisher – Our Black News (formally IBNN News)

Minneapolis, Minn…As a former active duty military solider, now scholar, it shocks me to see the limited amount of intellectual aptitude from those who wish to deface the United States flag.

If black issues matter, then local Twin Cities protest groups like #blacklivesmatter and others would realize there

are more than 300 homeless black veterans in Minnesota who faithfully, without hesitation defended the rights of freedom, liberty and justice. So go ahead, you can disgrace them (and yourselves) by burning the American flag with no consequences. This is telling about movements that only produced a 10-year-old child who was maced by Minneapolis police with the talking point: “Lucky I was only maced, not shot.”

A homeless veteran in downtown Minneapolis, “Gym-Shoe,” said, “Even though I’m homeless and not doing to good handling my PTSD and drinking, I wanted to rip the throats out of those punks burning my flag. I know America has not been kind to the brothers who served, but burning the flag is not the way to talk about racism, unemployment, homelessness and drug abuse among our people. These kids have never risked their life’s to do anything, getting into a club does not count.”

Organizing for positive outcomes is everything. It seems like protest groups in the Twin Cities want a “Mini-Baltimore,” where people are arrested, beaten and maybe killed by law enforcement that seek to go home to their families after work. The challenge is not black or white, but an issue of identifying a plan and working towards a change with the goal of seeking common ground.

I never heard once about #blacklivesmatter protesting for Minnesota veterans issues, which concerned me tremendously. There are issues inside the Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs that should be addressed with a rally or a protest. If veterans in Minnesota, especially vets of color, cannot expect to see an agenda item from those concerned about issues of fairness, then any movement that says something matters…is a lie.