San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the National Anthem ignited an incendiary controversy that showed no sign of cooling until the debacle of the 2016 presidential election hosed down everything else. Americans should still be horrified — not by Kaepernick’s behavior, but by the reactions of too many other Americans of torch-bearing villager mentality who clearly have forgotten the heart of the freedom that they somehow imagine is threatened by the absence of rote obeisance.
And mainstream media, happily floating in their usual cloud of euphoric cowardice, for the most part reveled in missing the point, and they continue to miss it. The real issue for America wasn’t — isn’t — a social justice issue. Or a sports issue. Or a race issue. It’s a freedom issue and a liberty issue that go straight to the foundation of American principles.
Instead, the story continues getting lost in why Colin Kaepernick and others who have joined his protest are — presumably temporarily — kneeling during the National Anthem. If media appear to sympathize or empathize at all, it’s for a nod to the one social cause that Kaepernick and company point to.
The fallout was all too predictable — Kaepernick began receiving death threats. What else is new? Some Americans are threatening another American’s life for doing what a whole lot of Americans have given their lives for since before the beginning of the republic.
Thousands of our military men and women get it. Check their messages on social media and political forums across the country and around the world. Many paraphrase, with varying degrees of accuracy, Voltaire’s famous quote: “I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” At least one has wisely added, “… and I knew people who did.” Others refer, albeit loosely, to George Washington’s admonition: “If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
The truth is that the why pales in the face of the what. It shouldn’t matter to anyone whether Colin Kaepernick — or anyone else — kneels, sits or lies on the ground during the anthem, and it shouldn’t matter the rationale. It shouldn’t matter if there’s no rationale. An act of freedom doesn’t require any rationale.
Don’t like the anthem because the melody’s from a British drinking song? Don’t like it because the words glorify war? Don’t like it because you just don’t? So be it. Resent saying the Pledge of Allegiance in school because you feel that you’re being forced and indoctrinated? None of that should be the concern of anyone but the individual who chooses within the beautifully broad parameters of our freedom to exercise his or her right to participate or not.
Most recently, Tampa Bay Buccaneers receiver Mike Evans sat out the anthem to protest the election of Donald Trump. Evans then apologized for offending military men and women with his protest, and mainstream media again happily pounced on the wrong idea. Dear Mike Evans and mainstream media: THE ANTHEM IS NOT ABOUT HONORING THE MILITARY!
Here’s what it is about:
God forbid the day in America when we WILL stand for the anthem, OR ELSE!
God forbid the day in America when we WILL say the pledge, OR ELSE!
Perhaps more important, rue the day, America, when sitting out either might be considered okay as long as you attach it to a cause. In the mainstream media version of America, that day is already here.
And Colin Kaepernick, for however long and for whatever reason he chooses to kneel during the anthem, should be remembered anytime anyone sings “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” He exemplifies the fruition of both visions more than all the self-righteous, misguided jersey-burners combined, and his demonstration of freedom and courage should be embraced as a sign that America’s democracy is still as strong and defiant as ever.