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A member of the U.S. military has just joined Colin Kaepernick's protest.

On Aug. 26, 2016, San Fransisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick declined to stand for the national anthem. Whether he wanted to or not, he started a movement.  

Kaepernick (right) and fellow protestor Eric Reid. Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick told NFL Media. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."


In the very next game, other players joined Kaepernick's protest. Some from the opposing team. By week three, there was a long list of NFL players from franchises across the country who had demonstrated or voiced their support.

Then college teams, the WNBA, and high school teams joined in, and before long, the movement had spread far and wide enough to be lampooned on "South Park."

Members of the Miami Dolphins kneeling in protest in September. Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images.

Recently, another individual decided to join the cause: U.S. Navy Intelligence Specialist 2nd Class Janaye Ervin.

Ervin explained her actions in a Facebook post that is now going viral.

"On Sept. 19, 2016, while in uniform, I made the conscious decision to not stand for the Star Spangled Banner because I feel like a hypocrite, singing about "land of the free" when, I know that only applies to some Americans," Ervin wrote.

My fellow Americans, I have been proudly serving in the US Navy Reserve Force since November 2008. I have pledged to...

Posted by Janaye Ervin on Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Ervin is the second member of the U.S. military to publicly participate in the national anthem protest. And the act has already become extremely controversial.  

The first was Lt. Commander Kate Meadows, also a Navy sailor, who posted a video on Facebook of her sitting on a bench through the morning colors ceremony.

Considering the fact that people were up in arms over a football player protesting the national anthem, members of the military joining in are bound to push some buttons.

Photo by James G. Pinsky/U.S. Navy via Getty Images.

In fact, Kate Meadows has reportedly faced disciplinary action and the Navy published guidelines warning their members not to join in. Ervin says she's lost security clearance and has been threatened with jail time.

A quick look at a comments section online also reveals the expected level of outrage over a member of the military refusing to stand for the anthem of the country they serve.

On the surface, it's understandable. Not paying tribute to your country's flag or anthem does seem unpatriotic.

And we do kind of expect our military to be dripping with the most unwavering patriotism. After all, they're the ones who go out and fight every day for our freedom to protest in the first place.

But there's something much bigger going on here.  

One of the Navy's mottos is "Non sibi sed patriae," meaning "not for self, but country."

Refusing to stand for the national anthem isn't about Colin Kaepernick, and it's not about Kate Meadows or Janaye Ervin or anyone else. It's about the country. It's about giving a voice to the millions who feel that theirs has been silenced or ignored.

Protestors facing off with police in Charlotte, North Carolina. Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

It's about recognizing a systemic injustice in a country that claims to be the land of the free and acknowledging that we can do a better job at living up to that promise.

In a way, it's the most brave and patriotic thing you can do.

Joy

Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

A sad-looking Labrador Retriever

The sweet-faced, loveable Labrador Retriever is no longer America’s favorite dog breed. The breed best known for having a heart of gold has been replaced by the smaller, more urban-friendly French Bulldog.

According to the American Kennel Club, for the past 31 years, the Labrador Retriever was America’s favorite dog, but it was eclipsed in 2022 by the Frenchie. The rankings are based on nearly 716,500 dogs newly registered in 2022, of which about 1 in 7 were Frenchies. Around 108,000 French Bulldogs were recorded in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Labrador Retrievers by over 21,000.

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PeacefulBarb's "7 Things Adult Children May Need to Hear"

Just like there are no hard-set rules for raising children, there is no perfect guidebook on how to be a supportive parent to an older child. As parents watch their kids grow and start their own families, it can be hard for them to navigate the new role they have in their lives.

That’s why Barb Schmidt, who goes by PeacefulBarb on TikTok, shared her list of the ‘7 Things Adult Children May Need to Hear’ from their parents. It’s a great starting point for parents who aren’t sure what their older children need.

Schmidt is an international best-selling author, sought-after motivational speaker, mindset coach and mindfulness teacher.

Here’s her list:

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Drew Barrymore speaks during the FLOWER Beauty launch at Westfield Parramatta on April 13, 2019, in Sydney, Australia.

Drew Barrymore, 48, has been in the public consciousness since she starred as Gertie in 1982’s mega-blockbuster, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. So, it makes sense that many people of a certain age feel as if they’ve grown up with her.

Now, she’s an even more significant part of people’s lives as the host of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” which runs every weekday on CBS.

On May 25, the show’s Instagram page posted a touching video of an off-the-cuff moment between Barrymore and a fan during a taping of her show. In the clip, Barrymore realizes that someone in the audience is crying. So, instead of ignoring the fan, she jumps to action to see what is the matter.

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Education

Nurse explains how babies breathe in utero and the internet is amazed

A new mom asked how babies practice breathing, and Nurse Jen delivered an answer that's blowing people's minds.

Nurse explains how babies breathe in utero.

There are so many questions out there that we don't realize we want to know the answers to until someone else asks. Once the question is in the vicinity of our ear holes, suddenly we're like, "Oh, yeah. How does that work?" That's pretty much how this TikTok video went for a lot of viewers, myself included.

I have had four (yes, four) children exit my body, and it never dawned on me to ask further than the initial question of how babies breathe in there. It's a question that most new moms either don't think to ask or ask only once and get a similar answer to the one I received, which is that they take in oxygen via their umbilical cord connected to the placenta, so they don't need to breathe in the traditional way we think of until after birth.

But when a new mom asked the people of the internet how her unborn baby was able to practice breathing without drowning, Jen Hamilton, an OB nurse, decided to answer in a video.

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A mother with a megaphone goes on strike.

Every parent knows that sometimes their kids, especially teenagers, can say things in the heat of the moment they don’t really mean. But the mother at the center of this story took her teenage son’s outburst seriously and turned it into an opportunity to teach him a lesson. The question is, did she go too far to make a point?

A 35-year-old mom wanted to learn if she had been too hard on her 14-year-old son, so she shared her story on Reddit’s AITA subforum (we've abbreviated the forum's name to avoid printing foul language). AITA is where people vote on whether the poster was right or wrong in how they handled a situation.

“Lately, he has been acting out a little at home and school, so I decided to sit him down to try and figure out what was happening,” the mother wrote in a post that received over 800 comments. She said that the boy had been cursing out his parents as well as his teacher.

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Dad gives a how-to on "gentle parenting with malicious intent."

By now, everyone has heard of gentle parenting. Even if you're not quite sure what it is, you've heard the phrase. Parents that use this style of parenting set boundaries with their children but with thorough explanations and a focus on healthy emotional development. One dad decided to spin the gentle parenting trend by implementing "gentle parenting with malicious intent" for his older children.

You may be wondering how one gentle parents with malicious intent. No worries, the dad uploaded a now-viral clip to TikTok, where it has over 4 million views, to explain. In the clip, "Ginger Jack" has the camera on himself as he talks to his kids about completing their chores without attitudes…and that's where the twist comes in.

"New rule. Whenever one of you starts giving me attitude, I'm going to start hitting on mom," the dad says before speaking to his partner. "Hey there. sugar. How you doing, baby girl? How do you feel about another child? I could rub your ankles real good." He then makes what can only be described as an attempt at a sexy cat noise.

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