Teens booted from stadium for lack of patriotism... This is ridiculous.

I recently heard about this on the radio, and I think it's effing ridiculous, but judge for yourself.

Apparently three teenagers did not participate in standing up during "God Bless America" in the seventh inning stretch at a baseball game and were forcibly removed from the stadium on the order of the co-owner of the team. The three are now suing the team.

I'm all for patriotism, but is this really the country that we live in now, where it supersedes the freedoms that we hold in such high esteem? If someone holds their pride for the USA in a high regard and want to get up for the playing of a patriotic song, more power to them... However, I don't think that they should be able to take such public and aggressive action with someone that doesn't choose to do the same.

We as Americans have the right to make that decision for ourselves, and where I can understand that a gung-ho patriot may be offended at seeing these "disrespectful punks" as one report described them, not standing, I don't think that it was appropriate to have them removed from the stadium by security.

The thing that I also don't understand is the public outrage about this, while some take the same stance as me, and think that the treatment of these boys was a violation of their rights, and completely inappropriate, there are also yahoos (cranky war vets no doubt) who are leaving comments on news sites saying things like "I hope they are shamelessly harassed" Really? Are you serious? If you want to live in a country where patriotism is mandatory, and not a right of the people, then perhaps you should find a tyrannical dictatorship to get involved in...

As for me, the day that patriotism becomes completely mandatory in this country, I'm moving to Canada.

http://www.syracuse.com/today/index.ssf/2009/09/teenagers_sue_baseball_team_ov.html