CARLTON FLETCHER: Sorry, Gwen Berry haters, her act is certified American

“Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, they’ve all come to look for America.”

— Simon & Garfunkel

When I get such correspondences, I don’t know quite what adjective is most apt: sad, pathetic, disappointing, outrageous, misguided, egotistical.

They all seem to fit, but then none individually does justice to what I feel.

I got two emails recently. One said he/she was pulling the plug on his subscription to this newspaper because we continued to run the columns of Michael Reagan, a “right-wing shill who contradicts himself on an almost weekly basis and adds nothing meaningful to the national dialog.” The other email castigated the newspaper — and its editor — for “running nothing but left-wing liberal columns, leaving the God-fearing conservatives with no one to espouse their views.”

I could write a loooooong column on why we run this or that columnist and not others, but that leaks into business and policy, of which I have only a modicum of input, and I wouldn’t disclose it even if it were my decision to make.

No matter what political tact anyone takes, to get back to the ideological differences of readers, I thought I was kind of “grown-up” because, while there are columnists whose writings I abhor (and, yes, Reagan is one of them), I find it enlightening to read opinion pieces from all sides of the political spectrum. If nothing else, you have an opportunity to learn what the “other side” is thinking. Plus, there’s this thing called compromise (I know, but look it up) that comes from listening to opposing viewpoints and maybe even admitting that, hey, part of what you’re saying makes sense.

But, apparently, there are a lot of folks out there who want to read opinions only in line with their own beliefs. It’s not enough that their favorite politicians, PACs and talking heads say these same things over and over and over, beating them into the heads of the true believers as if to induce a hypnotic state that ensures no deviation from the ones they’ve all chosen to emulate.

And that’s cool. That’s your thing. But such dogmatic loyalty is the kind of stuff history’s monsters — Hitler, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Lenin, Arafat, and the like — relied on to maintain their iron grip on whole countries that feared them because the believed all the bull– — they spewed.

One other thing I’ve thought about as this Independence Day neared was the outrage many have shown for American athlete Gwen Berry as she’s exhibited her disrespect and contempt for the American flag on the world stage during Olympic trials. The general consensus can be summed up in four words: Get rid of her. But before we do, let’s take a look at this woman and her misguided attempt to draw attention to herself.

Call it the Colin Kaepernick Syndrome.

Kaepernick, a mediocre NFL quarterback whose mediocrity soon disintegrated to non-existent, said he was the victim of a racist system that conspired to keep him out of a job. Never mind that his limited skills, which shone brightly for a season or two under the right coach and the right circumstances, very quickly surpassed their use-by date. No more lucrative contracts meant no more big bucks.

I know … it was this racist NFL that did me in.

Kaepernick became way more famous for leading an attempt to discredit the NFL and the United States by “taking a knee” during the National Anthem than his football skills would ever have taken him. And because he was such a polarizing figure, he was able to cash in by accepting paydays from money-hungry companies that saw a way to make bank on his likeness in the early days of his “campaign.” (Which quickly fizzled, but that’s the way it goes when you don’t really have a lot of talent and the public’s interest in you rightfully wanes.)

Berry, meanwhile, thinks she’ll be the female (or whatever she “identifies” as) Kaepernick and make a name for herself off her rebel stand. Hate to tell her, though, but her ploy is misguided. At the risk of being labeled a Cro-Magnon sexist (again … but I’m still not), you’re just not going to stir a whole lot of righteous indignation up as a female athlete (unless your name is Williams or … yeah, Williams) in a very, very minor sport.

And for all of you who scream indignantly that Berry should be sent home (or to another country), you’ll forgive me if I compare you to those people who want only to read or hear from others who think just like you do. See, one of the great things about this country — one of the things that confounds many citizens — is that Berry can, as an American, act any way she wants without fear of retribution.

She has that right. And that, Jack, is what America is all about. Happy Fourth.