Just before the national anthem played before his team’s September 9 game – a game in which he had a 40-yard touchdown reception – against Lincoln East, the 6-foot-3 wide receiver, took a knee, just as San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick did throughout the NFL preseason and again on Monday night; just as an increasingpool of players and celebrities have done since. But they wouldn’t necessarily be allowed to picket in a school hallway. “I can not stand and sing the anthem”, a baseball player once wrote.
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“Part of loving America is being able to say, ‘Look, we’ve got some issues, and I think we need to change some things.’ To be fearless enough to be willing to stand up on a rooftop and shout it – that’s just as patriotic as painting your truck red, white, and blue”, says Matt Pelak, a 19-year Army veteran and a paratrooper.
“That’s what we did as black men…[there was] no other response than for us to come together to support Muhammad Ali”, Beach said.
“(Oppong) did not violate any school rule when he peacefully and silently protested during the national anthem”, Worcester Superintendent Maureen Binienda said in a statement.
Mr. Pelak, who served in Iraq and also worked in USA as a paramedic for 15 years, says he recognizes that police “have to make split-second decisions about what to do when they interact with people who may or may not want to hurt them”, and that the problem is complex. Can we take a knee during the national anthem?’ I sat for a couple minutes and thought about how to respond and I said ‘guys it is up to you, it is your constitutional right to do what you believe and I am not going to step in the way of that.’ So they made a decision to take a knee and they are doing it for the injustices that they feel is happening to the minorities – blacks in the United States of America – to bring awareness. Other establishments would seat the players in the back or bar them from entering through the front door. It’s especially tough when you consider fans often ask players to speak up for things they believe in. The rest of the world doesn’t always see it that way, but as long as there’s a national consensus that this is how things are, America can simply ignore that. But it’s very likely that kneeling during the national anthem will become a fixture of sporting events for the foreseeable future, given the slow speed of racial progress in the United States. This is a great country.
Colin Kaepernick and Megan Rapinoe have meaning for the media but not me. Patriotism isn’t demonstrated by standing for a questionable choice for “our” song. The right to both participate in and not participate in patriotic exercises is reinforced in the MCPS Student Rights and Responsibilities. Yeah, there are men and women fighting under that flag against enemies that would kill people like you. “I think God guides me through every day and helps me take the right steps and has helped me to get to where I’m at”.
11 this season, and players have been protesting during the ceremonial pregame national anthem. Respecting this right is critical.
We, as a democracy, are losing our minds over such trivial matters. He harms no one.
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Damascus is a respectful, positive community. His silence is golden.
