Later he switched from sitting to kneeling during the national anthem. As he put it, he did this to show respect to show more respect to former and current U.S. military members while still protesting during the anthem. At the time that this was going on, I couldn't have really cared less. I caught it on the news, and saw a reaction of protesting his protest, but I figured it would blow over soon enough. But my God... this has become an epidemic. People seem to be losing their minds at the mere act of protesting during the national anthem and even more athletes are joining in. People are crying because he can't seem to get hired on as a quarterback and say it's because of his protest, but it's also spreading to fans and even students in school.
And I'm left over here wondering what all the fuss is over.
When I've tried to discuss this with family or friends I tend to get one of either end of the spectrum in response. I either get that kneeling/standing/holding-hands during the national anthem or pledge of allegiance is akin to raping the statue of liberty and should be followed by the person being hung or that it's no big deal and nobody should care about it at all. So... this post is me simply trying to figure it out. To work it through my head and mind and soul and find out how I feel. Because I feel so many different ways about it and none of those feeling seem to line up with the 'kill him/them!" reaction or the "it's nothing" reactions.
I think there are two major things going on here. Patriotism and Protesting. Before I dive into this particular viper pit, I should probably discuss how I feel about both of these things.
Patriotism. I guess deep down, I'm not all that patriotic. I don't see the point. I'm a citizen of the United States of America. I'm a citizen of the State of Michigan. I'm a citizen of the county I live in and the township I live in and I live near a city that I say I live in but I really don't. So as a citizen of the township I live in, I vote for commissioners and taxes and bonds and laws and other issues. As a citizen of the county I live in I do about the same. And the same for the State. And the same for the Nation. I'm not the only person in these political boundaries and depending on the current issue, I am sometimes in the majority of opinion and sometimes in the minority.
I do 'brag' about being from Michigan. It's a pretty great state. The Great Lakes are a big part of that, but there's also a lot of inland lakes and rivers. We have Detroit which was great, then sucked, and is on it's way to being good again. We have a lot of craft beers and that's wonderful to experience (I can't remember the last time in my state that I had to settle for some major brewery's beer!). We have a good collection of professional sports programs, mostly in Detroit. The Detroit Tigers, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Lions, Detroit Red Wings. We have lots of minor league baseball. We have several good college sports program (University of Michigan and Michigan State University) as well as many lesser college sports programs (Western/Eastern/Central Michigan, Oakland, Detroit). Our public universities are highly regarded with the University of Michigan being one of the original state ivies. We're a fairly populous state without being huge like New York, Cali, Florida or Texas. We have the auto industry as well as farming. We have vacation areas like Traverse City and the entire upper peninsula. But if I lived in other states, I'm sure I could brag about them too. Surely, I'd like to brag about living in Chicago.
What I'm trying to say is that while there are plenty of great things about my state, I could apply similar things about other states if I happened to live in them. Yes, there are great things about Michigan, but there are also great things about Illinois, Ohio, Arkansas, Montana, and Hawaii. Michigan isn't better. Michigan isn't worse. It's just where I live and therefore where I throw my fealty. The same, in my estimation, can be said about my country.
Yes, I'm happy to be a citizen of the United States of America. But I don't think it's the best country in the world. At the same time, I don't believe there is a better country in the world. There are simply good countries and bad countries. Most of the differences in countries are just political differences. By that, I mean the systems of government are different and therefore some of there laws and systems of society are different, but for the most part their populations, their people are just fine. Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Israel, South Africa, China, France, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Italy, Jordan, India... there's nothing better about these countries and there's nothing worse about them. They're just different. I am jealous of somethings in these countries (China's non interference, Great Britain's health system, France's non sectarian nature...), and there are things I'm glad we don't have to deal with (Israel's terrorism and handling of the Palestinians, South Africa's racial divide, Japan's age problems...).
So, I'm not one of those people who will stand up and hoot and holler about 'America!' being the greatest. I'm a citizen and I vote and I try to help out country be better than it was yesterday. Sometimes I'm in the majority and sometimes I'm in the minority. I try to call out our country when we're doing ill. I try to celebrate our country when we're doing good.
Protesting. With protesting, I'm more split. I both like and dislike it. I think if there is a cause that needs attention, then protesting is a valid way to display and share your opinion. Protesting wars and policies of the government seem to be the most appropriate things to participate in as they are letting the government know not only how I (or a single individual) feel, but that a large group of people feel the same and are willing to take at least some action to demonstrate our passion. Protesting, at least in my mind, should never ever ever ever ever ever be violent. Violence takes away all power from protesters. At the same time I'm not a pacifist and if you try to pull the sign out of my protesting hands then you better believe I'll beat you around the head and shoulders with said sign.
But more or less, I think protesting should have an action tied to it. Stop the war. Protect the Affordable Care Act. Stay in the Paris Climate Accords. When you start protesting against injustices, that becomes more sticky. Protesting racism without protesting an actual racist policy is problematic. When should you stop protesting in that instance? And it seems that more often than not organizations that protest against some kind of injustice fall into that problem. Black Lives Matter... they started protesting against police violence against black individuals... but now they just seem to be anti police. Colin Kirkpatrick and all the athletes seem to be just taking a stance without a strong issue behind it. What are they protesting and what action can be taken to satisfy their protest?
Now if athletes believe that sitting/kneeling/holding-hands during the national anthem is an effective way to protest, then I'll stand behind them. I believe, however, that they do need to be ready for the flack. Some fans are going to be more 'patriotic' and find it more than a little insulting that someone would protest in such a manner. These people will see it the same as burning the American Flag in protest (by the way... I have no problem with people burning the flag in protest). So while they might want to draw attention to racial inequality and the problem as it exists in America, they also have to be ready to lose their job for it. That loss can come from the teams owner and his own patriotism or the fans large vocal outcry and that pressure forcing the team owner into firing them. Just as it's ok for the athlete to protest, it's ok for the fans to counter protest by boycotting anything else the athlete stands for (the athlete himself, the team, the stadium they play in, the television partner showing the team, the sponsors of the team and the television broadcast...).
But there are times that the counter protest can go too far. In Detroit someone noticed to black fans sitting for the national anthem. He took their photo and posted it to snapchat with the words "Ignorant Niggers". The couple are sitting in protest of the national anthem... specifically this verse in the national anthem:
"No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,"
Umm... yeah, I think it's horrible that our national anthem contains a line about killing run away slaves. You can read about it here.
And then there's the whole thing that started me thinking about this topic this morning. A teacher has evidently assaulted a student for sitting during the pledge of allegiance. Here in my 'Great' state of Michigan. Why did he assault this student? Patriotism. Read about it here.
And then in general, I've seen a bunch of face book posts and memes about how if you haven't served in the military then you can't protest the government or the flag or veterans or the military or the president or really anything that pisses someone else off. I can apprciate the logic of that on its most basic level... yes those people did sacrifice for the flag and our country. But take it just a half step further and the entire argument falls apart. They fought/sacrificed/died for our freedom and part of our freedom is the ability to protest the government. In my eyes they might not be happy to see their patriotic symbol used to protest anything, but they should be proud that people CAN protest.
I guess I could wrap this up in the whole Nationalist movement or the America First movement. I could tie it to White Nationalists. I could tie it to President Trump. I could tie it up with Democrats or Republicans... but at the end of the day I'm just left baffled. I don't get the whole 'patriotism' thing and therefore can't understand why someone would get their panties in a bunch because of someone else protesting in an 'unpatriotic' way.
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