I have never read anything by Tamara Holder until now, and I hope this won’t be the last time. In response to Colin Kaepernick, a football player now known as the guy that did not stand and participate in the celebration of the national anthem during a football game as a way to protest police brutality and other injustices against minorities, Holder says: “Just like wearing a wedding band doesn’t make you a good husband or wife, standing for the national anthem isn’t what makes you a good American.” Often we get caught up in the tradition of culture. We tend to think: this specific culture means we do ‘this’, or we act like ‘that.’ But we fail to realize at times that our cultures come with values as well. American culture can be described as many things, but we take pride in being a so-called ‘free’ country.

I too find myself sarcastically repeating the lines of the national anthem; I no longer believe the words are true. I still consider myself American; this is where I was born and raised, but I am not proud of where our country is emotionally and socially right now. Just because a parent may be angry with their child, does not mean they are no longer their parent. This is because the role of a parent goes beyond the actions of the child, some may even claim their love for their child is unconditional; no matter what the child does they will continue to love them. If you can understand the vastness of parenthood, how it goes beyond actions of children, then you can understand the vastness of what it means to belong to a country. Everyone is entitled to feel whatever they want towards their country; my freedom hardly ever looks the same to a white person's freedom. This has everything to do with history and experience.

We also have a problem with oversimplifying things; we have reduced what it means to be American to just repeating and celebrating a dated anthem. Being American means something different to everyone, mainly because we are the big Melting Pot of the world. Because we are so diverse, we have to make room for other views of Americanism. If liberty and justice are for all then we have a lot of wrongs to right. It’s time to challenge our ‘freedom of expression’ and our belief in this ‘melting pot’ and really begin to listen to voices that for years have been silenced. One type of America does not exist and its time we understood that.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2016/08/29/tamara-h...