Two things. Vice President Pence left an NFL game last Sunday because some players took a knee at the playing of the National Anthem. He said they were disrespecting the American flag.
Second, Dallas Cowboy’s owner Jerry Jones has now said his players will all stand at the playing of the National anthem or else they can’t play. He said his players will respect the flag.
Okay, I get this obsession with the flag, which is only a symbol. I’ve written about both the absurdity and the danger of worshipping a symbol of freedom while denying people human and equal rights.
Pence and Jones are playing to the worst fears and prejudices in people. To deny professional football players, or anyone else, the right to express their disappointment and their disapproval of how certain police officers and police forces are mistreating, often outright killing, unarmed suspects, especially black men, ought to bother all Americans.
Power and money do not give anyone the right to silence protest of any kind in this country. The National Anthem protest is not about the flag, the military, or any other such thing. It is solely and entirely about a nation that blinks, looks the other way, ignores or condones police brutality and murder. Primarily brutality against and the murdering of unarmed black suspects who are judged, tried, and executed in the streets by aggressive and frightened cops who are never held accountable for their actions.
The Vice President, Jerry Jones, and other high-profile individuals in this country disgrace and abuse the considerable influence they have by shaming or threatening those who choose to exercise their Constitutional and American right to protest.
The flag and the anthem hold a lot of significance to a lot of people, and as I have written before, many want to tie them to religion and church and God. Incorrectly, I believe.
This protest is a silent, and I believe, responsible way to say to anyone watching, “I am disappointed in my country and its leaders. My country is letting me down. I’m a man of color and I feel threatened in my own country by aggressive and fearful police and a justice system that seems not to care about me and my family at all.” That, is the protest.
I do not have power or wealth and my voice counts for little, but I fully and without hesitation support the NFL players who are taking a courageous stand against police brutality and the irresponsible deaths of unarmed suspects who, until proven guilty, still remain innocent in this troubled and chaotic country.
Let's stop reframing the issue. It's not about the flag or the National Anthem. It's about the injustice in the country those symbols represent.
© 2017 Timothy Moody
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