It's just the era that we live in. Lack of respect for one's country and lack of patriotism is something that is learned by young people from their elders, regardless of who they are. Today "individualism" and "inclusiveness" is taught and if you do not honor that, you are a person-hater. So if some young person does not wish to honor America and acts like silly or would rather text on a smart-phone during the National Anthem, we as a society allow it, almost to the point of condoning it. Some even view it as their right of freedom of expression. Few realize that that "freedom" is because of the hard-fought service given by those who have defended those freedoms from groups who hate what we as Americans represent. Few also realize that with freedom comes responsibility, and with responsibility are consequences for one's actions. Part of it is the lack of corrective actions by parents and elders of our young people, and I am not talking just a "timeout". We no longer condone mild physical correction of any sort and view it as child abuse and inhibiting someone's self-esteem. Solomon's proverb from the Bible of "spare the rod, spoil the child" is one this nation's educational and parenting society could learn from. I think we would do well as a nation to again include the "Pledge of Allegiance" in the morning in our public and private school's classroom. That's were I learned respect and patriotism from, even if I am "old school" (literally!). Again paraphrasing Solomon's proverb is "Train up a child when (they are) young, and (they) will not depart from it." In the 1950's the nation's legislators chose to add the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance. Now there are those who want to take it out. Perhaps it is time to re-learn from history of what this nation was founded on and that the principles taught in the Bible are still relevant and necessary for the survival and continuance of this country we call America and the flag that it represents. As stated, respect is something earned (no it's not a typo for "learned"; I do mean earned) and taught to our young people that filters down to successive generations. Has it been lost in you as a reader of this post within this forum? Something to think about.