#228 - We Just Don't Get It

This morning, as I often do, I played catch up with my news feed on Facebook. I noticed a number of my friends were upset with the NFL.

Specifically, they were upset with players not coming out of the locker room for the National Anthem and were also upset with players kneeling for same said anthem. They just don't get it.

Many of those same people were upset when people took to the streets during any number of protests over the last couple of years when various police shootings were reported in the news. They just don't get it

They were also upset when people gathered in various parks around the country to protest the presence of Confederate monuments and demand they be removed. They just don't get it.

Protest is not supposed to be comfortable. It is meant to disturb, to upset, to shake the status quo. Does anyone really believe the protests against the Vietnam War would have been as effective if they had only been a letter-writing campaign.

We say we are fine with people protesting until they actually do. Then, we find some fault with the message or the manner of the protest. We just don't get it

The NFL players being maligned by our President have picked perhaps the least violent, yet visible means of protest they could to call attention to what they see as a real issue of race in this country. Instead of listening to their concerns or engaging them in meaningful dialogue, he tries to suppress their First Amendment rights by calling them unpatriotic and suggesting they should be fired from their teams. He just doesn't get it.

Protest is patriotic. Protest is American. In fact, protest is perhaps the most patriotic, most American act a person can engage in. America was founded on the rock of protest. (Boston Tea Party or American Revolution, anyone?)

The American Revolution was not called the American Disagreement or Dispute or Argument for a reason. Revolution is the ultimate expression of protest when all other means of calling attention to an issue or an imbalance fail. These NFL players, and the many engaging in protests to call attention to continuing racial issues in this country are simply carrying on perhaps the most American of traditions. The rest of us just don't get it.