I tend to take the South Park view of the whole Colin Kaepernick controversy. I don’t particularly care if you stand, sit, kneel, or pick your nose during the singing of the National Anthem. America will keep on going, whether or not you show it some respect. But if you use that moment to make some kind of protest, you have to be prepared to deal with people who don’t like it.
And if you take a knee while you’re actually singing the National Anthem in front of a crowd… why did you agree to sing it in the first place?
The day after the first Kings’ preseason game, the buzz is all about what happened before the first play. Singer Leah Tysse took the microphone to sing the national anthem, then she took a knee – and took the audience by surprise…
She explained her decision on Facebook: “Taking a knee felt like the most patriotic thing I could do. I cannot idly stand by as black people are unlawfully profiled, harassed and killed by our law enforcement over and over without a drop of accountability.”
She’s wrong on the facts, and her form of protest was bewilderingly stupid. But hey, that’s America for ya.
Sure, she’s just being trendy and making an empty gesture that she doesn’t really understand. Some would argue that standing for the Anthem is an empty gesture as well. I don’t, but if you do, that’s fine by me.
There’s another side to that coin, though. A lot of people are offended by this form of protest, and they have the right to be. If they decide to punish Ms. Tysse or the Kings financially, they can and should. Just ask the Dixie Chicks if it’s a good idea to piss off your fans.
The same goes for this post, or any of my posts, or anything else you read. You don’t have the right to not be offended, but you do have the right to protest it. That system has been working out pretty well for the last couple hundred years, and it’s the only one we need.
Okay, enough outta me. I’ve been taking a knee this whole time, and it’s really starting to hurt!