I’m told that NFL players are kneeling during the playing of the national anthem as a protest against racism and bad cops targeting innocent minorities. If that is the case, then you’re doing it wrong and, as we can see, your actions have not and will not accomplish the goals that you are hoping to accomplish. This will kill the branch of the entertainment industry known as the NFL. But worse, it will divide us more as a people.
First off, let me say that I have no doubt that there is racism going on. I have no doubt that there are bad cops and bad politicians who target minorities in this country. I stand with you all against this travesty of justice. I’ll stand with you. But I will never kneel with you when you turn your focus away from those bad cops and bad politicians and wrongly focus your ire on the very founding principles of the United States of America. That is exactly what you are doing with your kneeling during the national anthem.
Sure, you have the right to do it, but it is offensive to me as an American and as a veteran who served under the flag and who is sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same. Just as you have the right to kneel during the anthem, I have the right to call you out for it and to deny doing any business with you in response to your actions.
Our flag and our national anthem are symbols of our Constitution, of freedom, of liberty and of human rights. They are symbols of our home and all that we believe in. They are symbols of the principles that unite us, and behind which we can all rally. Whether you are an elderly American celebrating the 4th of July with your grand kids, or a military member defending our country from enemies on foreign shores, these symbols are meant to unite us all for a common purpose. They proclaim to the entire world that we, as Americans, still recognize and attest to that which our Declaration of Independence stated so boldly. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The bad cops and bad politicians do not represent America or her principles, and America does not represent or support them or their unjust actions. So, to protest in this manner against the country, the flag, and the anthem is a despicable, reprehensible act. To protest these does not serve to protest the bad cops and bad politicians, it only serves to protest the very principles on which the United State of America was founded. You are COMPLETELY missing your mark with these protests.