The NFL season has begun, and with it, the culture war over
protests around the Black Lives Matter movement by players during the playing
of the national anthem. The protests
have sparked an ever-escalating outrage from some quarters, and encouragement
from others.
Donald Trump, the super-patriotic bone spur veteran, has
tweeted his indignation at the disrespect that these protests indicate for the
military sacrifices of our soldiers. He
has put increasing pressure on the NFL to mete out punishments. There is also a grass roots effort to rally
fans for a boycott on the 11th of November to punish the league
monetarily for this movement and encourage it to clamp down more vigorously.
On the other side of the issue, Nike has presented Colin Kaepernick,
the super-bowl winning quarterback who launched the protests, as the
centerpiece of their anniversary celebration of the ‘Just Do It’ ad campaign, and is standing behind the protests. The
issue has become one of the myriad polarizing issues between liberals and
conservatives and generates great passion on both sides.
There can be reasonable differences in opinion about how
society should address the problem of police shootings, racial profiling and
police treatment of people of color. But
there is no justification in the USA, a nation that should be the world paragon
for freedom of speech, for the point of view that seeks to prevent NFL players
from expressing their concerns.
The primary argument against the protests is that the
players are somehow showing a lack of respect for the military and the
sacrifices of service members killed or wounded in our various conflicts. This is simply specious reasoning. The players are not targeting the military
and if you ask any of the protesters they will say that they have full respect
for all who have served in the military.
Indeed, military veterans who reason thoughtfully about this issue would
be proud that they have served or fought for a nation that gives its citizens
the right to express their views about how it could be made better, and would
perceive the protests as a validation of their sacrifice.
There is a corollary anger about the protests that seems to
target the wealth and lifestyle of the players as indicative of hypocrisy in
their actions. The fact is that these
players are beneficiaries of unique economic and celebrity status due to their
athletic abilities. Like so many of the
super wealthy or famous, this gives them a platform to make their beliefs and
opinions known to a larger audience.
There is a long history of famous people speaking out about issues close
to their hearts and there is no reason these players cannot become socially
active in a similar manner. Their choice
of taking a knee during the national anthem may be offensive to some who see
the national anthem and other patriotic expressions as some sort of sacred duty
that is inviolable, but isn’t it actually the highest form of patriotism to
stimulate a discussion about a national problem and seek an improvement in our
society?
Symbols like the flag and the national anthem may be used to
express one’s affection for the country and its qualities. But creating a quasi-religious mystique
around these symbols creates an obstacle to honest appraisal of our country’s
good and bad points. It has been said
that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, and we must be careful not
to use patriotism to delude ourselves into naïve fantasies about our country
and ignore the many challenges that it faces.
Patriotism is not a blind commitment to one’s country or any
of its symbols, but rather a continuing effort to support and nurture the
principles that have contributed to making the country a good place to live and
work. Solving a country’s problems is
messy, complicated work, but ignoring the problems is a big mistake and
discouraging sincere dissent and protest will only lead to a hollow patriotism
that does no good at all.
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