I Have Some Thoughts

Does this look like the face of a person who cares at all about sports?

I tried not to bring this up, and I almost made it. But it's Black History Month and the Super Bowl is tomorrow (I know this, but do not ask me where it is, what time or who is playing) and I, a person who has always had difficulty keeping my big opinionated millennial mouth shut, cannot not say something anymore.


No, I cannot name one athlete competing in the Super Bowl, but I know who Colin Kaepernick is. He's a hero.

I heard a song once that went something like "land of the free, home of the brave..." What song was that? Oh, wait. That was the national anthem: the song white people made an awful lot of fuss about last year, which is odd considering many of them seem to have forgotten both the words and the meaning.

People still ask me, knowing I have an opinion about literally everything, which I usually enjoy expressing in an extremely lively manner, "Hey, Ashley, what do you think about those NFL players kneeling during the national anthem?"

Gee, I don't know, dude. How do you feel about your constitutional rights to free speech and peaceful demonstration? *Rolls eyes dramatically*

I'll say this, and then I'll drop it forever (maybe).

"Star Spangled Banner"(that's the name of the national anthem– I've recently realized that a lot of the people so angry about peacefully demonstrating NFL players disrespecting it don't know that) is just a song. A simple tune that may or may not have been plagiarized. It is not sacred. The reason we all feel so fuzzy about it is that the song represents what is sacred: the unique constitutional rights that we as Americans enjoy. Our freedoms.

Like free speech.

Like the right to peaceful demonstration.

"Star Spangled Banner" is meaningful because it stands for the right of Colin Kaepernick and any other brave person to kneel during the national anthem before millions of critics in support of a cause that is worth believing in. Star Spangled Banner is meaningful because it means I cannot be punished for writing this very post and may continue happily referring to the deranged, pathological liar in the Oval Office as "Orange Hitler" without fear of ramification. I couldn't do that in a lot of other countries, but I can in the land of the free.

And if "Star Spangled Banner" is a symbol of all that our forefathers fought for – for the freedoms we enjoy, how could we take issue with men who use the time during which it is playing to take advantage of the very rights it stands for? Are the 58 seconds it takes to play the song not, in actuality, the best and most appropriate time to demonstrate those rights?

And then, who is really dishonoring our national anthem? The person bravely exercising the rights our constitution affords us in order to promote equality and a person's right to life at the risk of their reputations and careers? Or the person who berates these brave people for their disrespect? Or perhaps, the guy who lazily stands for the national anthem with his beer in one hand, and with the same hand that's over his heart also holding a half-eaten hot dog, waiting to boo whomever on the field kneels? Isn't the worst way to show disrespect for the national anthem to forget its meaning?

I realize that was a lot of questions. They were all rhetorical. It is the people booing and berating these peaceful demonstrators who are the real disgrace. They forgot the words. They forgot the whole point of the song.

Colin Kaepernick is the whole point of the song.

I understand that, while misguided and not fully thought-through, the people booing kneeling NFL players at least believe that they are standing up for the national anthem, which though only a song, does mean something. But while they frantically try to put out the fire on a sinking dingy, behind them, the Titanic is going up in flames. They're attacking the first amendment – the constitutional right that gave us civil rights, women's lib and SNL – in defense of a song. That was probably plagiarized.

Side point: What is so offensive about kneeling anyway? It's what men do when they propose to the women they want to marry. It's how knights greet kings. It's how we pray.