1. The argument over people sitting during the national anthem shows how narrow minded some people still are. I get tired of seeing people advocate and fight for one thing but not another. So, kneeling or sitting during the national anthem is disrespectful, but booing the president during a speech honoring the victims of 9/11 isn't? Sitting or kneeling during the anthem is disrespecting the people who fight for our country, but when African Americans are killed by law enforcement and you tell them not to complain because they kill each other, are you not disrespecting the ethnicity who helped to make America so great? And what about this freedom you speak of? Is it limited to only certain people? This argument shows that instead of being open minded and tolerant of each other's differences of opinions and cultures, there are large groups of people who are stuck in their perfect rose colored world and have no intentions of trying to see life from the perspective that maybe America has some work to do in the equal rights and inclusion department.
2. The argument shows how far America has NOT come. Instead of respecting differences, we are seeking to silence voices and take away people's freedom by telling them how to behave and who to celebrate. It also negates the fact that some people do not share the same views about what the national anthem represents. While some see it as a song of pride, there are several ethnicities that see it as a symbol of oppression. America the great does struggle with giving equal rights to minorities, whether they are LGBT, African-American, Muslim, Hispanics, etc. America could possibly elect a presidential candidate whose platform is building a wall to keep immigrants out! Never mind unless you are Native American, you are an immigrant.... America as a whole has come so far in so many areas yet when it comes to equal rights, the voices of minorities are continuing to be silenced and basically unheard.
3. The argument is a reminder that you can only educate children. Other adults are not children. So they can not be educated. No matter how many times it is explained that Black Lives Matter is not a terrorist group and only wants equal rights and protection from police, to someone that does not care your words will fall on deaf ears. The research is out there. To see the discrepancies in standards of life based on socioeconomic status and race, one only has to venture to a disadvantaged neighborhood. Or maybe even type "Black Lives Matter" into google. Or try googling the statistics of black lives taken by police. The simple fact is some people just do not care. No amount of back and forth arguing or educating someone on "the cause" will make someone who does not want to get it finally get it. Recently, there was a protest in my hometown on a bridge that traffics major business. The protest was to make demands that police are held accountable when they murder people instead of using de-escalation techniques granted to others. The wide held response was, "Why did they have to shut down the bridge? Couldn't they do that somewhere else?" The reality is people do not like being inconvenienced. They do not understand that change happens as a result of being inconvenienced; however, no one cares as long as they are not being inconvenienced. For people like that, it is easier to see the national anthem issue as a sign of disrespect than to acknowledge (or care) that the man who wrote the national anthem owned slaves. So how exactly is the star spangled banner waving over the land of the free when so many people in that land were enslaved? With that being said, were all men REALLY created equal? And if so, why can we not equally have the right to pick and choose the components of American culture we want to celebrate? If our president can be booed at a football game and people are not up in arms, then those same people should respect when people choose not to stand for a song that they personally feel is disrespectful and oppressive to specific groups of people. Personally, I think there are bigger and deeper conversations to be had than who is standing or sitting during a song. Oh what we could accomplish if we used those same voices to advocate for change!
