Who wins our Rights, Citizens or the Military?

The other day, I was standing in front of the kitchen sink staring out the window, lost in my own world.

“Jason.”, my wife said. “What are you doing?”

I abruptly snapped out of it. “Oh, nothing.”, I said and went back to washing the dishes. It’s my job to wash the dishes after dinner, but I had been immersed in thought. Actually, that’s when I do some of my best thinking.

I had been thinking about a lot of the things I’d been reading in the news of late.

First, was the controversy surrounding then San Fransisco 49ers player Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem at NFL games. The first time I saw the report on the news I wasn’t sure what to think. As a gut reaction, I didn’t like it. A lot of people said he was insulting the flag and indirectly, all the men and women who have served or are serving in the US military. They had a point. I felt it was disrespectful and couldn’t imagine myself doing that. I remember thinking somewhat cynically, “What a hypocrite, an NFL player earning millions of dollars protesting the flag over racial inequality.” But deep inside was a seed of doubt. To be honest, I really didn’t understand what he was protesting about. But I started to read more about why he was kneeling, specifically, to protest police brutality and police killings of people of color. Kaepernick explained,

“I’m not going to stand up and show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color…To me this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder. “

The protest had become associated with the Black Lives Matter movement. The more I saw him and other players peacefully protesting, the more I understood and I came to respect and support what they were doing.

I was even more deeply impressed when I learned that it was a former NFL player and veteran, Nate Boyer, who helped give Colin the idea to kneel in the first place. In the beginning, Kaepernick only sat during the anthem. When Boyer, a former Green Beret saw this on TV, he felt insulted and angry. He later penned an open letter to Kaepernick stating his opinion. Later, the two men met to discuss their opposite views. One of the first things Kaepernick did was thank Boyer for his military service. This surprised and impressed him. Over the course of their conversation, as the two men respectfully listened and talked to one another, the idea of kneeling came up. We kneel to pray or grieve a fallen comrade. It was a compromise. Kaepernick would protest the injustice he felt but at the same time show more respect to those in uniform. Afterward, Boyer was quoted,

“I told him if they knelt, I would be next to them with my hand on my heart, because I support your right to peacefully protest in this country. That’s what I fought for.”

The protest gained even more recognition after he started kneeling with athletes from many sports joining in.

All of this was put into a new perspective after watching the now famous speech by then, Texas senatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke. In the video that soon went viral, O’Rourke, at a town meeting is asked what he thought about athletes kneeling at games. In an impassioned response, he said, “I can think of nothing more American.” O’Rourke went further and put taking a knee into a larger context and compared it to protests during the civil rights movement of the 60s.

“The freedoms that we have were purchased not only by those in uniform…but also by those who took their lives into their hands riding those Greyhound buses, The Freedom Riders in the deep south.”

It made me realize there’s a lot more to freedoms and rights than what’s stated in the Constitution.

These are the things I was mulling over as I stood there in front of the kitchen sink. Thinking about this and other rights movements I had a realization, what Samuel L. Jackson would call a “moment of clarity":

1)    Rights and privileges are not given freely, but must be fought for.

2)    With the exception of the Revolutionary and Civil wars, American rights and privileges have not been gained by the American military. Men and women in uniform fight to defend and protect these rights, but new freedoms are won by contentious American citizens exercising their rights of free speech and peaceful assembly on American soil.

Activists are met with hostility and criticism. This is often because their views are ahead of the curve of public opinion and not yet accepted by the mainstream. And I’m not just talking about the 60’s either. Many movements have helped secure American rights throughout our history.

In May, 1886 several people died in Chicago as a result of protests for a 8 hour work day. This was part of the labor movement in America and worldwide that helped win basic rights for workers like a 40 hour work, health insurance, and a two day weekend. It's hard to imagine a world where people fought and died to work 8 hours a day and have Saturday and Sunday off.

Women only won the right to vote everywhere in America in 1920 after decades of struggle in the women’s suffrage movement. Today it's taken for granted.

Today, same-sex marriage is universally protected in all 50 states, but was legal in only one state in 2004. It would have been hard to imagine this even 30 years ago. That’s how much public opinion has changed. All these rights we enjoy today were fought for over years on street corners, on the floors of legislators, in the voting booths, and in the courts.

We owe a great debt not only to men and women in uniform, but to average citizens who took a stand and took risks to make their world a better place. We can’t all be activists, but we should all be engaged in politics on a national and local level. Pick a side, take a stand, vote, participate in your democracy. I can think of nothing more American.

Sources:

Taking a knee: Why are NFL players protesting and when did they start to kneel?