Two stories caught my attention this week
The first was the continuing story of some NFL
players who are choosing to kneel during the national anthem, following the
lead of former San Francisco Forty Niner Colin Kaepernick who first did it back
in a 2016 pre-season game stating:
”
When this first started, despite the fact that
I personally sympathize with his position and believe minorities are not
certainly not free from discrimination in our country, I was mildly
miffed. At the time I thought it was
just a “one and done” story, but believed there were better ways to express a
position. Still, I wondered what
compelled Kaepernick, and then eventually some other players, to grab attention
this way in order to make their protest.
I hadn't given it that much consideration
until I read a response from former (Super Bowl Champion) New England Patriot
Defensive End Chris Long who discussed his recent 'symbolic' gesture of putting
his left hand on the shoulder of a kneeling teammate and said it proved the
power of national anthem protests
Long (son of Howie Long, a popular sportscaster, a Hall of Fame defensive end and a product of Charlestown and Milford, MA) has had strong feelings about social issues in this country for years. Long spoke to NFL.com last Tuesday about anthem protests, saying that his gesture proved how effective protests are in generating a conversation:
“No one gave a (expletive), frankly, until I put my hand around Malcolm. That just goes to show you the power of symbolic protests. All of a sudden, everyone cares about my protest, but they never cared about my actions — which kind of proves, well, why do you need (to protest during the anthem)? If guys were just like, ‘Hey, I’m over here! I want to talk about social issues,’ the reporters would be like, ‘We don’t care.'
Hearing this blunt rationale directly
from one of the protesters made it really sink in, and as a result, made me disagree
with it even more. Let me first say that
I applaud, celebrate and and honor any individual who fights for social issues
or serves others who are in need, whatever that need is. Those individuals represent the best our country has to offer.
From what I know of Chris Long, he is highly
principled and caring man, however, he appears to believe that his voice and his
opinion is so much more exceptional than the opinions of the rest of us, that
he is deserving of special attention.
All of these players must feel that their voices must be heard, and so
they pick the national anthem to amp up the volume. They have decided that
their end justifies any means.
Conservatives have frequently denigrated the
“Liberal Hollywood types” who upon winning some type of award, use that podium as
an opportunity to speak out for some ideal or against some perceived
wrong. I never had an issue with that,
as they had earned the right to speak and be heard. It’s a wonderful example of the exercise of
free speech. You can do it on a soapbox
on a street corner or in a post on the Internet or at an awards ceremony where
you have been given 90 seconds or so to thank your friends and family and/or
make a point.
But standing for the national anthem, removing
your hat, putting your hand over your heart, and even singing (if you can hit
the high notes) seems like a sacred moment to me, and I’d like to think is it
for all of us. It is a reminder that we
are a country where free speech is embraced, despite the difficulties which
often surface as a result of its exercise.
And so when Colin Kaepernick and others kneel
during the anthem, it feels both counter-intuitive and counterproductive to the
cause they wish to discuss. They believe
that their cause is so special that they choose to protest a solemn moment for
others in the stadium. They protest the county which grants them free speech as
an indisputable right, but they want more than free speech, they want a podium,
and a large one at that. Near as I can
tell, that is not a right guaranteed to us in the Constitution, and so for a
brief but solemn moment, they choose to hijack our collective patriotism, in a
poor attempt to promote their cause.
They are just looking for a shortcut, while
the rest of us have to take the long way around. I don't believe that deserves any sort of
special treatment.
Look for Bookends to the Hijacking of
Patriotism - Part 2, to follow.
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