by
Rosemary and Walter Brasch
Before a football game against the Green
Bay Packers two weeks ago, Colin Kaepernick, San Francisco 49ers quarterback,
refused to stand for the pre-game patriotic ceremony that is wound around the
singing of the “Star Spangled Banner.” Kaepernick later said he was “not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a
country that oppresses black people and people of color,” and said his stance,
a quiet form of civil disobedience, was to him “bigger than football and it
would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the
street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” Several
professional athletes had previously protested what they saw as police
brutality directed against Blacks; about 70 percent of NFL players are Black.
However, Kaepernick’s actions received
far more attention because he was the quarterback to a Super Bowl championship
team and the 49er–Packers game was televised to a national audience.
The NFL, many of Kaepernick’s team mates, and civil rights activists across the
country supported his right of protest; that right was burnished into the First
Amendment. Others said he was unpatriotic, a disgrace, and a hypocrite for
taking a six year $114 million contract, with $61 million guaranteed and the
rest based on various bonuses. The Santa Clara police union issued a threat—its
officers might not wish to work at future 49er games if the team’s management
didn’t discipline Kaepernick. About 70 police are security for each of the home
games.
Before the game against the San Diego
Chargers this past week, Kaepernick said “The media
painted this as I’m anti-American [but] that's not the case at all.”
During the 1960s, hippies often sewed flag patches to their jeans to
cover up holes. The establishment coiled up in fear that those who looked and
acted different from them not only were unpatriotic but posed a threat to God,
mother, and apple pie.
Today, just about every sub-group of
society, from homeless teens through affluent senior citizens wear T-shirts,
shorts, bandanas, and every kind of clothing imaginable with the American flag
depicted on it. At the Olympics, American athletes even wrapped themselves in
oversized flags. And no one complained about their disrespect.
During the late 1940s to the 1970s,
thousands of persons, mostly in the arts, were subjected to Congressional
hearings that were ways to ferret out those whose political beliefs did not
match the two major political parties’ idea of what a “true American” should
be. Businesses and numerous governmental bodies demanded workers to sign
loyalty oaths. Those who had no allegiance signed; thousands who were patriots
did not and stood up to the politicians and business owners, risking their own
careers but knowing such oaths were unconstitutional and discriminatory.
In the 1960s, a few million Americans sat down at lunch counters or on the streets to demand that state and the federal governments adhere to the Constitution to allow all citizens the right to vote and to receive equality under the law.
In the 1960s, a few million Americans sat down at lunch counters or on the streets to demand that state and the federal governments adhere to the Constitution to allow all citizens the right to vote and to receive equality under the law.
In thousands of classrooms in 26 states,
the day begins with an obligatory recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, written
by a socialist in 1892 and adopted by Congress as the national pledge in 1945.
Those who refuse to stand or who stand and remain silent or who don’t mouth
“under God,” are exercising their First Amendment rights.
Colin Kaepernick repeated
his constitutional right of dissent this past week when he kneeled down during
the ceremony. Next to him was safety Eric Reid who also took a knee rather than
stand.
Kaepernick did not rant and rave; he did
not destroy property or threaten anyone’s life. He just refused to stand.
Those who condemned him for what they
mistakenly saw as his anti-American action might be the ones who defame the
flag and American patriotism. Here’s are some questions that need to be
answered.
The Flag Code suggests that when the
National Anthem is played, persons should stand and cover their heart with
their right hand. There is no federal law that requires anyone to stand, but
how many who do stand take off their baseball caps and put their right hand
over their heart?
How many Americans fly tattered and
weather-worn flags in front of their houses, businesses, and municipal
buildings, also Flag Code violations?
How many Americans get rid of the worn-out flags, according to the Flag
Code?
June 14 is Flag Day. How many American
newspapers run full color, full page depictions of the flag—and tie advertising
blocks to it?
During the first Gulf War in 1991, how many Americans flew the flag to
show American pride, but were intolerant of minorities and those who rightfully
protested that war or who didn’t put a flag in their house windows or by their
mail boxes? It was during that war that thousands of businesses flew flags,
believing the larger the flag, the greater the patriotism, but still treated
their workers shabbily or outsourced jobs to other countries. Just how
patriotic is that?
How many Americans are willing to send their youth to war, but when they
return home don’t give them jobs, counseling, or adequate medical assistance?
Shouldn’t that be unpatriotic?
How many Americans who flew flags after 9/11 thought it was acceptable to
violate the Constitution by rallying behind a government that was engaged in
overt practices to deny American citizens their First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth,
Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights? How many Americans disregard the part
of the First Amendment that protects freedom of religion, and attack American
citizens who are Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, or any religion other than
Christian?
How many Americans don’t know much about history, political science, or
current events, yet screech bar-room ignorance about what they think is wrong
with the country, while doing nothing to improve it?
In the last two months of a presidential election, how many Americans
follow politicians who stand in front of large American flags, wear tiny metal
flags on their lapels or collars, and condemn other politicians who don’t wear
flags?
How patriotic is it when a millionaire
politician hides money in an off-shore account to avoid paying his or her fair
share of taxes?
About 94 percent of all American flags are produced in China, according
to the U.S. Bureau of the Census. How many Americans buy flags and all kinds of
merchandise made in other countries, while neglecting American-made products?
The American flag is material. It is not who we are or what we believe,
nor is singing or standing for the “Star Spangled Banner,” which became the
national anthem only in 1931, 155 years after the Declaration of Independence
was signed. The Constitution allows for divergent beliefs. Those who don’t
recite the Pledge or sing the Anthem are no less of a patriot than those who
are determined to make their voice the loudest in the room, while their own
actions show them to be nothing more than jingoistic opportunists.
Patriotism can mean standing up—or sitting
down—for social justice.
[Rosemary Brasch before retirement was a
secretary, Red Cross family services national disaster specialist, and
university instructor in labor studies. Walter Brasch is an award-winning
social issues journalist, patriot, and professor emeritus of mass
communications from Bloomsburg University, who refused to sign a loyalty oath
to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. His latest book is Fracking America: Sacrificing Health and the Environment for Short-Term
Economic Benefit.]
