Hearts and Minds (Not Knees)

I was taught that it takes all kinds of people to make a world. In light of how much of a knucklehead I can often be I’m grateful we seem to using a very loose definition of “all kinds” though I am becoming concerned and not just a little vexed at how frequently we seem to be trying to impose a public definition on what should be among the more privately personal of our individual values, patriotism.

George Bernard Shaw observed, “Patriotism is your conviction that your country is superior to all others because you were born in it.” I guess with that as a definition, I’d have to plead guilty as charged, but if it pleases the court (of public opinion), your mileage may vary.

I’m a white sixty-five year old male and from that perspective and with my experiences, I can effortlessly endorse a sentiment that says this is the greatest nation on earth and perhaps the greatest country in the history of this planet. Except….    

I have eyes and ears (we both know I most certainly have a mouth) and sometimes they see and hear things that tell me there are many others with whom I live side by side and/or street by street whose American Experience has thus far been dramatically different from mine.

It’s all well and good to believe we are a country with justice for all but we need to be honest with one another and concede that’s a goal and not yet a fully shared reality.

I'm not always comfortable being reminded we're not all equal or treated equally, but my comfort aside, we're not and there are too many reminders every day of the journey we have yet before us. And that conclusion brings me, almost inexorably, to the NFL and the brouhaha over protests, insults, call-it-what-you-will, and our National Anthem.

I’m not sure we’ve paid this much attention to Francis Scott Key’s words since he first wrote them after witnessing the siege of Fort McHenry. But I do know TV networks rarely if ever included coverage of it at any sporting event until very recently.

Some see the players’ behavior as an “insult to veterans.” I wore an Air Force uniform for eight years to defend the ‘land of the free and the home of the brave,’ not just for me and mine, but for everyone, so I’m not insulted when players are taking a knee.

Rather, I’m angry that they have to call attention to who we are because it means the promise of our anthem, of our flag, of our way of life, is a lie, when it doesn’t extend to everyone.     

Carl Schurz, a patriot of another time, once said, “My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.” We need to stop arguing about who takes a knee or why and, instead, take a stand and make our country the nation we claim it is for all.

-bill kenny