When Taking a Knee May Actually Be Standing Tall

I write this from a place other than the outrageous shock-and-awe positions I like to assume. I take to heart one of my central tenets of writing: rather than from the position of my voice, write to the listening of my reader. Some may say this violates the authenticity of my expression. I assert it commits to the understanding of my listener.

“You can bet that the men and women we honor today, and those who died that fateful morning 75 years ago, never took a knee and never failed to stand whenever they heard our national anthem being played.”

To US PACOM Commander Admiral Harry Harris…

Hello, Sir…

I am writing in response to your comments regarding Colin Kaepernick’s actions with respect to our national anthem and flag.

To help your understanding of the commitment behind my communication, here is some of my background:

I am a Vietnam-era veteran who enlisted and extended his enlistment to serve our country during a time of complicated crisis. I served in your bailiwick, in the Information Office of Tripler Hospital in Honolulu. I am proud of the awards I and my compatriots received from the Congress of the Hawaiian People for furthering understanding between military personnel and the civilian population of the Islands. I was a member of the Joint Information Bureau at Clark Air Base that managed communications between our military and the international press when our POWs were brought home through the Philippines.

My father was a Navy fighter pilot in World War II. My brother-in-law and my nephews are all Marines, one having served honorably on the ground in Vietnam. The two younger men were in multiple deployments in the Iraq War, one serving first in harm’s way as part of the in-country spearhead.

I know without doubt that you are an honorable, courageous, and patriotic man. I understand your visceral and emotional reaction to Kaepernick’s gesture on the playing field. I urge you to consider an alternate interpretation.

Although Kaepernick was born into a broken mixed-race home and raised by a foster family, he is a self-made privileged individual who has fame, wealth, status, and celebrity. What may seem like a frivolous and capricious gesture on his part is an action that could, given the current climate in our country, have disastrous impact on his career. I have to believe he acted with consideration of this fact and understood the possible consequences. If we who have undergone military training and service understand anything, it is a selfless act in defense of those who cannot defend themselves.

Our flag and our national anthem are powerful emblems of our strength, our heritage, and our commitment to freedom and democracy. I came to manhood in the 1960s and I witnessed desecration of those emblems that were spurred by hatred, opposition to American values, and a rejection of our history. I also saw flag burnings that were expressions of the anguish arising from our country acting itself in violation of our declared values. Those expressions came from people whose voices would never have been heard if they hadn’t made themselves known through such a public and shocking act.

I earnestly believe that Colin Kaepernick was acting in such a manner. Rather than disrespecting our flag, he was making a shocking gesture to bring attention from his position of privilege to what he sees as a violation of our sacred principles in some parts of our nation. To draw the attention of men such as yourself, honorable and respected men with the power to influence our national conversation and begin the process of realigning our actions with the heartfelt values on which we were founded and which we have bled and died to protect.

As human beings, we like to categorize things, people, to make it easier to deal with them, to judge them if necessary. But people are rarely one thing or another. As a college student before my military service, I marched and sat-in for causes of civil and human rights. Yet I was also instrumental in the disbanding of the SDS on my college campus. This was not because I was critical of their values (although I was in many ways) but because the individual leaders of this chapter were seeking personal power and planning to subvert other campus activist groups to consolidate such power for their own gain. I could not stand for this and conspired with a former secretary of the SDS chapter to bring them down.

Critical thinkers look beyond the surface declarations and actions of people and groups to ascertain their true motivations. I urge you, a critical thinker and a committed patriot whose opinion matters, to look past the surface disrespect of Kaepernick taking a knee during our anthem and see it as a wake-up call, as taking a stand on an issue of fairness, so that we might all stand proud, without reservation, before our flag in the future.

Because standing for our flag means standing for the actions taken in its name, and if some of those actions are unconscionable then it is our patriotic duty to oppose them, to declare ourselves on the side of justice and fairness. Rather than reject and revile the Kaepernicks of our country, let us take to heart their concerns and defend American values in every corner of our land.

I know if I do that, then when our national anthem is played, I don’t have to turn to see if those around me are standing for it. I know I am standing for them. And that is the power of our flag.

With respect,

Chris Berthelsen