Those who disparage the protesters are the ones who dishonor our American flag, our national anthem and the American ideal. The right to protest injustice is fundamental to our American fabric. To attack those who do is un-American.

I am a Vietnam combat veteran and proudly wore the American flag on the shoulder of my flight suit as I flew the night skies of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Fellow aviators and friends died in those skies fighting for the American ideal and their remains are now embedded in the earth of Southeast Asia.

It is disturbing to me that the president has little understanding of what it means to protest, and even what is being protested. It is not our flag, nor our national anthem that are being protested; but it is injustice. And, to denigrate those who exhibit the courage to express protest is only to betray the spirit and ideals for which these symbols stand.

I am dismayed that the president is driving the wedge further into American unity rather than honoring the right for discourse within our great county.

Jim Kolva

Spokane