When the summer ends and we all must return to school and work, we try to make ourselves feel better by saying fall weather is better and ooo pumpkin spice!
Really, we know what the true consolation prize is: football comes back. Every year, many of us give up our Thursday nights, Saturdays, Sundays, Monday nights, Thanksgiving and Christmas, you name it, to cheer on our beloved college and professional teams. If you are lucky like myself, then you are a devout Patriots fan who spends most days celebrating rather than sulking and those rare days are far and few in between. And although most of us in New England have been rather preoccupied with Tommy Touchdown’s unfortunate suspension, the rest of the nation has been consumed by the Patriotic Paradox: sitting out the national anthem.
On August 26, during the playing of the national anthem before the San Francisco 49ers’ third preseason game against the Green Bay Packers, quarterback Colin Kaepernick performed a silent protest that screamed volumes by refusing to stand during the National Anthem. Following the game Kaepernick explained his actions by saying "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,”
Responses to his statement and actions were varied, some saying they supported his protest, others saying he was being disrespectful while there were those who found themselves in the middle, addressing that while perhaps the actions were disrespectful they were also a demonstration of First Amendment freedoms.
This movement has been sweeping the nation, with other NFL players doing their own form of protest, such as kneeling or raising a fist, trickling down to college players, high school and even youth. Kaepernick has received backing from athletes of other sports as well, such as U.S women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe who knelt during the anthem at one of her games before saying “Being a gay American, I know what it means to look at the flag and not have it protect all of your liberties. It was something small that I could do and something that I plan to keep doing in the future and hopefully spark some meaningful conversation around it. It’s important to have white people stand in support of people of color on this.”
So what is the right answer? Are Kaepernick, Rapinoe and their other fellow athletes successfully performing a peaceful protest, exercising their First Amendment rights by using their public figures to bring awareness to civil issues? Or, are they acting imprudently; that by disrespecting the flag and anthem, they are disrespecting the Americans who have fought and died, and continue to fight to protect those Constitutional rights? Many have said Rapinoe is more wrong, since she is wearing a USA uniform, representing America in international play, as opposed to Kaepernick’s 49er’s jersey. In such a multi-faceted situation, it does not seem like there is any one correct answer.
Perhaps, it is what Pete Carrol and his Seattle Seahawks did on their opening game on the 15th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. They stood arm and arm during the anthem, a representation that across all discriminatory boundaries, they stand together, they stand united. This was a demonstration they performed once again on their September 18th game, where Michael Benett even said “We’re not going to stop showing unity just because we are on the road”.
So maybe if we can’t agree on whose right and whose wrong, we can agree that above all we have a duty to remain united, that we as Americans have gone through so much to protect that unity, and that amid all tension between our people, we have an obligation to protect our brothers and sisters.
