Sometimes
things for me are considered controversial when they shouldn’t be. This whole
NFL protest is over something way blown out of proportion. Why can’t they
kneel? We live in a democracy. Yet some people seem to think that they can’t
protest even though it is explicated laid out in our constitution. The NFL
wants to get people back on their side by having players do commercials where
they talk about their love of the country. Well, let’s get through all of this
that I think is worth mentioning.
It
all started with a man named Colin Kapernick. He made a good point by taking a
metaphorical stand against racial injustice. He didn’t stand for the national
anthem, being made to kneel soon instead. This is a pretty decent way to
protest. They could burn flags against a country, but they don’t. They do a
pretty respectful thing. But not everyone sees it that way.
The
disconnect that I see related to this comes from people thinking that this
disrespects the flag and veterans. How does not standing for the national
anthem do this? I don’t follow. The anthem has so little to do with this that I
don’t even know why that’s the go to response of people who don’t like this.
But this country has a right to free speech where one can and can’t do
something within reason if they don’t want to. How is this different from that?
Trump’s
opinion on the matter seemed to make things worse for people like him. Before
the games were played on Sunday, he tweeted that he hoped that people wouldn’t
protest and felt that anyone who did should be fired for having an opinion
different from his own. If he hadn’t said anything before the games, it’s
possible and very likely that nobody would have protested. Instead, there were
protests at every game played that day. If you go asking for trouble, you will
get it. That’s how we got Trump in the first place.
A
sadly important thing in all this is ratings. You might have seen commercials
where NFL stars talk about their love of the military and of this country.
While I’m sure that wasn’t entirely just a way to save face, you know that them
wanting to salvage their failing ratings has something to do with these ads.
People are dumb enough to give up something they love (watching football) just
so that they feel they are doing something good in the world. But it is really
those who would risk their careers by protesting the anthem who are making
their message heard.
Something
that I wanted to add was that some people may think that what these players are
doing is un-American in some way. People have a right to not stand for the
anthem. Why would they not be able to do this? Maybe you don’t like the
direction of the country. But I don’t think that people want to leave this
country just because of it. They want to make their voices heard and this is
the way that they do it. If there were something un-American about making
voices of yours heard by not liking what is going on with how things are run
where you live, then this country probably wouldn’t exist.
I
don’t know what else there is to say about this topic. Maybe there is more to
this that I could say that is important in one way or another. But I think that
I covered pretty much everything that I could think of that’s important to this
post. My point is that people should be able to protest the national anthem. It
is in our Constitution, that right. People can be dumb for getting upset at it,
but that is their right as well. I think that the NFL players have the right to
protest it and I, for one, will keep watching it for as long as the issue
remains.
