Every Monday, in my classroom, we ask students to stand and say “The Pledge of Allegiance.” I have had discussions with students over the years, especially in my Honors classes, about what the words mean and about whether saying them is the same as making an oath or just a systematic form of indoctrination. We’ve analyzed the meaning, the structure, and the intent. These are good, meaningful conversations about good, meaningful words. I’m pretty sure, as a Language Arts teacher, those discussions are the definition of “doing my job.” In 24 years in the classroom, however, I’ve never had a student refuse to stand for The Pledge, but after the outrage on both sides of the NFL debate this weekend, I believe it’s coming. I wonder how I will respond. How will I “do my job.”
I consider myself a patriot. I love my country.
The flag, the Anthem…they are symbols of my country. The Constitution IS my country. If we’re offended by disrespect to the symbols, but are willing to disregard the rights enshrined in our most defining document, we’re no patriots. We’re just walled off pundits who can only envision our own version of a “Great America.”
If a professional athlete feels the need to protest a perceived or real injustice, what form should that protest take? Violent protest is rightly scorned in the U.S.; now peaceful protest is as well? What I saw, first from Kaepernick, and then from many others in the league, was a quiet, dignified, peaceful protest… a public protest, as befits the status WE’VE given them. Should it matter that they’re wealthy? That they play a game? Aren’t their rights are the same as everyone else in our nation?
If you don’t like what you see, don’t watch, but don’t whine about how such a protest disrespects our service members, who swear an oath to defend the Constitution, when the first right enumerated in the Bill of Rights, a part of that magnificent document, is the Freedom of Speech. You don’t have to like or agree with the protest for it to be protected. Vote with your $. Don’t support the game if it bothers you.
Or, maybe you love football so much that you, yourself feel uncomfortable having to deal with the moral gray area you experience when you see young men, especially successful minorities, empowered to call out injustice. Or, maybe you feel angry that these privileged young men are taking their fortune for granted under the umbrella of the freedoms that allow them to play a game on Sundays and make millions of dollars doing it.
How about this; did you ever consider that the feelings that these protests evoke in you are EXACTLY the reason why professional sports are the PERFECT platform for social change? You may not change, it’s true, but the conversation has begun and it’s not going to go away. Stop watching football, if you don’t like it, but the conversation will continue…that’s how change gets done.
And now, a final question: Do YOU get off your couch, cover your heart, and show the respect you expect when the Anthem plays on Sundays. Do you? Every time? I admit that I don’t, though maybe I should. Or, my neglect to do so should mean something. Or, I should at least acknowledge my own (privileged) apathy.
Maybe we should face the fact that if we’re that uncomfortable, it likely says more about us than it does about these peaceful protesters.