We all know the words and the procedure. We've done it quite a few times. However, do we ever stop to think about why we do it?
It's understandable to follow the crowd when "The Star-Spangled Banner" plays. We come from a country populated by Cloyd Riverses and 'Muricans that have their torches and pitchforks ready for those commies who don't like their country. To avoid heavy scrutiny, confrontation and possibly even violence, everyone in America just goes along with the idea that we live in a utopia, at least when these 'Muricans are looking.
It can be tough to speak out, even alienating. Colin Kaepernick knows this first and foremost, and the backlash he has faced over the last week has been unnecessary, to say the least.
For those of you under a rock, '49ers quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, refused to stand during "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the beginning of the NFL team's preseason game this past weekend. When asked why he did so (and criticized for it), Kaepernick remarked that this country does not stand for liberty and justice for all, an allusion to the #BlackLivesMatter movement.
Kaepernick not only is correct in his criticism of the "greatest country in the world," but this assault on his character perfectly exemplifies a major problem with this country: you cannot say there is anything wrong with it without being fiercely combatted.
The most ironic part of all of this is that Kaepernick's refusal to stand is one of the rights this country was founded to uphold. The Founding Fathers, every 'Murican's favorite heroes, wanted us as a people to be able to speak out against our government if it was failing us.
It is. Or at the very least, it is failing minorities.
This backlash is exactly the terrifying mentality that hardcore 'Muricans have, that you are unpatriotic if you do not support everything the United States is doing. It's scary because it shows how cult-like America has become. If you were under the impression that singing our national anthem or our Pledge of Allegiance means you are standing up for justice and freedom, then I'm sorry to burst your juvenile bubble. You are not. What you are doing, instead, is swearing an oath to obey the country no matter what it is doing, and what it is doing is not always right.
It's even called a Pledge of Allegiance. You swear allegiance to this country. But why?
Accounts on Twitter have gone so far as to call Colin Kaepernick racial slurs, only really proving that what he stands for--or rather, sits down for-- actually has some weight. Not all of these 'Muricans are quite as hostile, thankfully, and not even everyone who disagrees with Kaepernick is a slave to the flag. But even the fact that an alarming number of people are should be enough to justify the quarterback's stance.
What has happened this week is not a new problem, but it has shed light on a problem that's been around for ages. It is an arrogance and a denial that everything we do in our country is perfect. Again, it is not. In many ways, it fails us, and we should have the right to say so. I'm not expecting a Neo-American Revolution to be led by Colin Kaepernick on horseback down the streets of San Francisco or anything like that. I'm just saying that this "controversy" has only shown this country's true colors once again, and they are a propaganda-feeding and bigoted red, white and blue.
