Op Ed — It’s a Grand Old Flag. Except When It’s Not.
“And now they’re coming for me, because of you and your blind pride. Damn your flag. Damn all flags. It’s too late in the world for flags.” ~ “The Sand Pebbles”
Ever since this debate about Colin Kaepernick began — before the last presidential election — I have had misgivings and conflicted emotions, both as a veteran who served in an unpopular war, the son of a family of veterans who felt it their duty to serve; and as a White man who cannot deny racism still abounds in America,…and will not ignore it and simply hope it goes away.
Granted, my own personal take on patriotism was founded during an earlier time, when able-bodied men were routinely drafted into military service; in addition to those who volunteered, or those who made it a career or even a family tradition. It should be remembered — in this debate — that our current President, Donald J. Trump does not come from that same military tradition,…despite his self-serving political embrace of the American flag and the practice of playing the National Anthem at sporting events. Sporting events. Indeed, he never served and specifically, repeatedly, sought not to serve!
Sadly, we now live in a world that — in some ways — is more dangerous than during Vietnam or our earlier wars, wherein some of our enemies don’t wear a distinctive uniform; don’t represent a nation with borders and laws; don’t adhere to international conventions about conflict and humanity. And, we no longer have the draft, nor nearly so many families with unbroken family military traditions.
But, in this more uncertain world of globalism, international trade and multilateral agreements; where does patriotism end and where does the dangerous hubris of nativist nationalism begin? Mr. Kaepernick’s individual act of bravery — in the face of what he sees as racial oppression — has renewed the debate and, our new, racially divisive president’s stubborn penchant for aggressive tweeting has divided us into camps of so-called “patriots” or,…“sons of bitches.”
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, you’d say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired,” Trump said.
Some say Mr. Kaepernick’s continuing defiance — against standing in blind idolatry to a flag and an anthem is unpatriotic. Some say it is foolhardy. Some say it is courageous. Some say, his actions are without merit because he is merely a sports figure. Some diminish him further, because they say he was not a very capable one, and that his defiance is more about that and his loss of employment, than it is about his loss of pride in a nation wherein he feels that White Privilege and racial oppression still trump human dignity and full racial equality and colorblind justice.
I have routinely stood and removed my cap at baseball games and other venues where the anthem was played. But now, I question the hollowness of that symbolic act of “patriotism” — if millions of my Black and Brown brothers and sisters see little moral improvement in the way they are perceived and treated. Who am I — as a White man in a nation that outlawed slavery barely 150-years ago, and still struggles with the not-quite-dead vestiges of Jim Crow — to question Mr. Kaepernick’s motives? Or the motives of those who see him as a modern day champion not unlike Mohamed Ali, once reviled by White America yet now remembered as “The Greatest” — a sports icon and a proud Black man who dared challenge his nation to do better, to be better.
I have had this argument with others, in private and even in public once, before the election, when a much younger man began speaking ill of Mr. Kaepernick, at a poker table in Reno, Nevada, of all places. I spoke up for Kaepernick and would do so again. The echoes of what that younger man yelled— as casino security ushered him out of the room — was his screed that; “people like me won’t be silent anymore!” and “you’ll see how things change, when Trump gets elected!”
Indeed, we are seeing that now. And it is an ugly, searing indictment of just how far America has yet to come.
And now, this president — who falsely demeaned the last one as being un-American — has amped-up the debate further still, and attacked more players in more sports — for bravely coming out and kneeling in solidarity with Mr. Kaepernick. Not because they aren’t patriots, without any constitutional right to speak out, but because they are patriots, and citizens of the republic who do yet have the unalienable right to speak out by #TakingaKnee.
