Colin Kaepernick explains why he sat during national anthem.
Sort of.
“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game.
Not many people in this country don’t strongly identify with a group of people or a principle that is wronged by local, state, and/or federal government. And I’m fine with all of them also refusing to stand in pride with a hand over their heart when “The Star Spangled Banner” is performed. The lyrics aren’t all that great anyway. Even if And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air, are so apt for the hearts of Americans. And the melody wasn’t even ‘born in the USA.’
More depth to Kaepernick’s objection can be read in Shaun KING: Why I’ll never stand again for ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’. That’s fine as well. But all the verses to This Land is Your Land are rarely performed because some people also don’t like them.
What I very much dislike is having to stand for “The Star Spangled Banner” at events that are only public in the sense that anyone that can afford the price of the ticket can attend.
…
The Star-Spangled Banner is traditionally played at the beginning of public sports events and orchestral concerts in the United States, in addition to other public gatherings. …
Why does this tradition exist? Many traditions are quite nice and pleasant. Even those like Thanksgiving that are based on a lie — but a lie for what we wished had been true because it speaks to a yearning in the human heart to be better animals. However, fealty to the US flag and “The Star Spangled Banner” are historically recent inventions. The US National Anthem only came to be in 1932. Passed by the 71st Congress, and signed by President Hoover. Something else of somewhat more importance to most people was going on that year. Not surprising that if DC can’t give the people in need jobs or aid that they managed to dish up more patriotism.
If Congress had waited one more year, they could have adopted an anthem that speaks better to the American spirit and is much easier to sing. We’re In The Money
And scantily clad, dancing girls as well.
And it’s beautiful and a real change from the 1960s and even the early naughts:
#VeteransForKaepernik Trend Shows Freedom Means More than Flag to Many Who Serve — at The Intercept
UPDATE #2 – USUncut 9/8/16 The entire Seattle Seahawks team will protest the national anthem at opening game
I’m with Kaepernik, too. Maybe it’s time to change the national anthem. There’s no reason to celebrate the War of 1812, since the U.S. really didn’t win it. I doubt that most Americans are even interested in the War of 1812. Adopting “My Country ‘Tis of Thee” is not a good idea, since it’s melody is the same as the national anthem of the United Kingdom, “God Save the Queen”. Why are our patriotic songs based on melodies that celebrate upper crust England or British royalty? One would think the U.S. has a tea and crumpets envy. The media is very impressed with British royalty and never fails to report on the latest prince or princess activity.
There’s no reason to celebrate the War of 1812,
But we don’t because the link between the lyrics and the “Star Spangled Banner” has long been lost. Being able to identify the enemy in the Revolutionary War and why it was fought is the extent of the average American’s knowledge of that historical period.
Why are our patriotic songs based on melodies that celebrate upper crust England or British royalty?
Because that was where the cultural/financial center and therefore, the US reference point existed for those in the US colonies and our northern neighbor didn’t junk “God Save the Queen” until the mid-20th century. We’ve never completely shirked off those roots. What today is viewed as traditional for Christmas celebrations and a white dress for brides were imports. We as a nation remain Anglophiles and we aren’t resistant to be interested in those that symbolize wealth and celebrity. The 2016 presidential race is a perfect example of how far down we’ve sunk.
That clip! What a pageant of pulchritude!
Gold Diggers of 1933 is a truly great movie, one of the very best of the era. It remains wonderfully entertaining to this day:
Many of the pre-Hays Code movies were politically and socially radical. The Great Depression really opened up the possibilities of what could be expressed in popular art.
Thanks for the Woody Guthrie lyrics link.
I agree about playing the national anthem (whatever song it is) at sporting events. It’s inappropriate because those are not official government acts or explicitly patriotic acts. Should we stand and sing in a theater before the curtain rises or the movie starts?
I also don’t think the Pledge of Allegiance is appropriate for schoolchildren because they are children, as incapable of giving political consent as they are of giving sexual consent. It trivializes the Pledge to have it mouthed by rote, usually with the wrong words, by uncaring children ordered to do so. It might be appropriate at a state run college, but it never is, so it just looks like political indoctrination of children.
I won’t comment on the rest of your post because I know our opinions are diametrically opposed and the chances of you converting me or me converting you are less than the chance of a gigantic meteor obliterating DC in the next hour. So I’ll only say that I respect your courage in posting a controversial opinion and your taking the time to compose this diary and research the links. Again, thank you for the links.
I won’t comment on the rest of your post because I know our opinions are diametrically opposed …
Do tell. As we seem to agree on core elements of my post — as well as the one you added, children required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance as political indoctrination — aren’t we adult enough to quibble over minor differences? Standing with Muhammad Ali and Tommie Smith and John Carlos didn’t feel courageous to me back then. It merely felt right. Generally, but not always, “right” is on the other side of most popular in national controversies.
Let’s also note that people, including other NFL players, are claiming that Kaepernik refusing to stand for that national anthem at a football game is dishonoring soldiers who put their bodies on the line for our gd right to salute the flag at football games. Gee, maybe military recruiters should mention the glory of fighting for that right in their sales pitch.
Anyhoo — these yahoos (along with most Americans) have no clue as to all the places the USA is currently bombing. They may not know where we’re dropping bombs, and most couldn’t find those places on a map if their life depended on it, but they know they’re for it.
To add to that depressing note: 19% of Democrats polled support bombing Agrabah. That’s one place that’s going to escape being bombed to smithereens.
These people will care when the defense budget starts eating into their little sliver of the pie.
That’s not gonna happen. The DC yahoos have that one all figured out; put the wars on the USA charge card before nicking the patriots for higher taxes to pay for the wars they dearly love.
Wow — checking around the tubes on this issue is like time traveling. Back to “freedom fries” and dumping French wine down the drain and smashing Dixie Chicks recordings. Much further back, the good American response to M. Ali when he refused to be drafted and sent to Vietnam. Or the outrage in ’68 when Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised a fist (that one died down more quickly because neither were wealthy nor household names at the time).
Over fifty years one and Americans remain stuck with adolescent cognition and emotions. Pathetic.
I guess we can’t expect too much from people who have been encouraged to be a part of the “Pepsi Generation” or suffer the consequences of social ostracism. This Pepsi advertising campaign was launched in 1963.
“The ‘Pepsi Generation’ was one of the first and best known instances of what came to be known as ‘lifestyle marketing’. It focused on portraying Pepsi drinkers as possessing desirable qualities such as youth, rather than on the characteristics of the product itself. Pottasch said that ‘Pepsi was young, spirited, people doing active things–playing volleyball on the beach…. but younger we said in mind, in attitude, in feeling. Young in spirit. Young in heart.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepsi_Generation
Doubt the target market for the ad took anything in it seriously. For the times, it’s looks quite pedestrian and rather silly to me. However, that was when soft drinks were a growth market — per capita annual consumption in 1960 was only 12.3 gallons; so it was in that treat/luxury category then.
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