PATRIOTISM AND PROTEST

It's that time of year again. No, not pumpkin spice everything season.  It's football season!

Alas, while I would love to talk about football, my team keeps blowing leads and losing in the fourth quarter, so I'm just a little bitter right now. Also, I don't think most of you read my blogs for sports updates anyway.

What I really want to talk about is the controversial conversation sparked by the actions of an NFL quarterback.

It is a tradition to have someone sing the national anthem before every game. Most people will stand during this time. I even stand and put my hand over my heart when I'm watching the game on television. This is a sign of respect for our great nation.

But this quarterback did not stand. He sat. And of course, with the game being televised, millions of people saw this and wanted to know why he sat.

His answer:

                "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color...There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

He sat in protest. He sat down to stand up for the rights of those who have been shot down.

Now, most people would agree there is a problem. With the rash of fatal police shootings of minorities, some unarmed, people want answers. People want change. Including this quarterback who sat down.

However, not everyone agrees with his method. Many people were angered by what they call "blatant disrespect of America, of the military, and law enforcement." In fact, he said he has received death threats.

Now, I may not necessarily agree with his methods. I take great pride in knowing that I live in a country where someone can protest and create change. Even though this country has serious problems, it is a free country. And that is why I respect this man's right to protest, whether or not I agree with his methods. I can't understand people who threaten another person's life for protesting in a country that was founded by protesters.

But that seems to be who we are as humans. If someone does something we don't like or agree with, our hackles immediately go up. We pass judgment. We hate. We spew out anger and vitriol. We criticize and condemn. We threaten. And sometimes we act on those threats.

Imagine how much more peaceful it would be if we all just stepped back, took a deep breath, and tried to understand the other side. Because the thing is, we all act based upon our own feelings, our own thoughts, our own experiences and biases. We all see things from our own perspective. But everyone's perspective is different.  Everyone's life experience is different. And we all have biases. We may not realize it, but we do. We judge people based on what we think and believe. We judge based on what we've gone through in our own lives. We judge based only on what we see and hear and understand. We don't know what that other person has been through. We don't know their pain, their anger, their struggles. We don't know what they think or how they feel or how they see the world. And we don't always have the facts of a situation.

I honestly don't know exactly what happened in each fatal confrontation. All I know is there is a problem that needs to be addressed. The violence needs to end, on both sides. Because cops are dying, too. And they are humans as well. Every day they put on that uniform, they know there is a chance they will face danger. But they kiss their loved ones goodbye and go out into an unknown world anyway. They do it for the people, for this country.

That NFL quarterback wanted to get the conversation going. And he did. Unfortunately, the conversation drifted somewhat.

What we need is to come together. To try to understand the other side. Let's stop the political rhetoric. Let's put aside our differences. Let's actually listen and talk to each other, instead of yelling and arguing. Let's find a way to strip away the layers of bias and prejudice and unfounded fear and hate.

We have to. 

Lives depend on it.