Respect for the Anthem and Respect for Each Other

Trump says that the NFL anthem row is not about race. For him it isn't. For him, it seems, no matter your race, as long as you are an American, you should stand with other Americans in respect when the anthem is played. For him the anthem and respect for it is not about race and shouldn't be made about race. Other people made it about race and he refuses to assent to that.

I tend to agree with that and wish more people would. We should not make the anthem something political or controversial. We should all stand and respect it. After that we can use that as common ground for holding a respectful discussion about our differences. At that point hopefully we can all recognize and respect that we are all Americans that respect our country despite our differences and complaints. Because we have that in common, we should be able to give each other respect as we discuss our differences. For me it isn't about the military, the history or anything like that. It is about finding common ground to start from. I wish more people would see it that way, but they don't.

I think what Colin Kaepernick did was disrespectful. It was disrespectful to the promise and hope of what America tries to be even if it fails to achieve it. It was disrespectful to the thing that holds America together as a country: that promise and idealism expressed in our founding documents. These are more important in the US than many other countries because we don't have a common ethnic or national background. The nation--the common ethnic, cultural or national background that the people share--is the foundation of many modern countries. The modern idea of a country is based largely on the idea of the nation/state. America doesn't have a nation in that sense; we have the political ideals expressed in our documents and traditions (even if we have yet to fully live up to them) and we have common economic interests. Those are really the things that have held us together as a country. The anthem and the flag are symbols of those things, or that is how I have always understood them.

If Colin Kaepernick felt he had to do sit or kneel during the anthem to get attention so people would listen to his opinion on race, that is too bad. There should be a better way. Maybe there isn't; that is water under the bridge now. The fact is, he did it. Instead of taking the respectful route after that, both sides just started flinging insults and accusations. What would have been the respectful route? Asking him to sit down and talk about his concerns so he felt he was being heard, so he didn't feel like he had to do it again. That also means that he would have to be respectful and patience in expecting action and change before he would go on upsetting people again. Instead of taking a respectful path at any point between then and now, we have pretty consistently done the opposite, or just held our tongues. The bigger problem is that too many people these days just revel in getting offended and offending others. It is a pastime now and a very vicious one at that.