“I’m no less American right now than I was the day I was born in this country that I love very much, and I’m no less patriotic”, Williams said.
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Kaepernick, the backup quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, initially sat down on the bench during the Star-Spangled Banner to protest police brutality and unfair treatment of minorities by law enforcement.
According to CBS New York, Brooklyn council member Jumaane Williams (D) refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance during a City Council meeting Wednesday. “In good conscience, I couldn’t continue to protest quietly without using it to highlight the plight of so many”.
Williams also finds himself on the opposite side of the issue from Kate Upton, who took to Instagram and Twitter to express her disapproval of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem on September 11th.
Nasheed’s list of “injustices” include those of police brutality, poverty, voter suppression, “unlivable wages” and “mass incarceration”. “Liberty and justice for all” are not just words – they are our country’s ideals.
Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican, released a statement in response, saying Ms. Nasheed’s protest signaled “an occasion for great sorrow”.
Nasheed acknowledged that the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem are not the same.
“There is no question of the senator’s right to remain seated during the Pledge, but it’s a question of the propriety of her action”, his statement said, in part.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Nasheed is no stranger to demonstrating in order to bring about social change.
But, she said, “It represents the same when it comes to black people in America”. “I am not anti-America, and in fact, it is because I love this country that I take this stand”, State Sen. The Pledge of Allegiance, like the National Anthem, is an occasion for all Americans to stand together in national unity.
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In 2014, amid the protests in Ferguson following the shooting death of Michael Brown, she was arrested outside the Ferguson police station and spent the night in the St. Ann jail.
