One Nation, Under God, Indivisible

2017 and the Colin Kaepernick debate feels like several lifetimes ago. Those feelings of divisiveness, division, and the desire to speak up about disparity and injustice have only grown as the world burns around us. The selfish worship of freedom and rightness is killing us by the thousands, regardless of race. But like everything else, minorities are still affected more. The need for discourse about what we think, believe and experience is more necessary than ever. But the thing we need most is to actually hear each other, empathize and work together toward improvement. It doesn’t matter where we get our news, the priorities that drive us, or what we believe to be true… somewhere in the middle is the actual truth and we’re only going to find it if we stop, collaborate, and listen. It’s a world gone mad, why wouldn’t we be taking advice from Vanilla Ice? ;)

I wrote the essay below on my Facebook on this date in 2017. I banged it out on my iPhone from a hotel bed on a business trip in the Dominican Republic. I was pulling long hours with a team of extremely hard working people that I became friends and practically family with. We were black, brown, and yellow on the outside, but all bleeding red for a common goal. These amazing teammates were barely making ends meet, riding buses to 18 hour day jobs and struggling to put food on the table for their families. They went out of their way to make me feel safe, supported, and comfortable as I took up residence working beside them. I felt terrible that they were working so hard for so little, but realizing that their lives likely wouldn’t be much improved in America really sent my brain into overdrive.

Our awareness of our privilege comes in stages. We move from blissfully unaware, uncomfortably acknowledging and living with its existence, then we get motivated for change and work towards parity driven by a shame of unjust division we had no part in creating but benefited from just the same. It burned a fire in my belly realizing that these people I’d grown so close to were struggling so hard to survive but would face entirely different disadvantages at home. I grew enraged, disgusted, and disappointed with every headline I read and Facebook post to cross my feed. What I thought was bad then is unbearable now.

America- land of the free and home of the brave, has never been one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We’re almost 60 years from Martin Luther King having a dream about the equality of man. Black, Hispanic, Asian, Jewish, LGBTQI+ and Women are struggling to survive not thrive. We can debate a lot of things, but alarming rates of violence and death for anyone but a white man in America are easily established through much more than anecdotal evidence.

There are so many things in this big beautiful world that I will never understand. COVID is a terrible thing, but should be a great equalizer. 9/11 was 20 years ago, and from all of the bad some good arose. We were all terrified and afraid, but we came together with a common goal: to unite and fight against the fear for our safety and way of life. COVID should be doing the same but we’re too busy pointing fingers and yelling at each other to put it behind us. I’m looking forward to the day we have learned from it, and march together towards a better America. We are not undivided, indivisible, and all enjoying freedom and justice. I sure like to think we can be, if we work together.

I hadn’t seen this clip from Jane Elliott when I wrote this, but now that I have, I don’t think anyone could make a clearer point in 30 seconds. No kneeling or name calling required.

From an essay written on 9/25/2017

I don't understand how so many people are missing the point. Personally, I cant see myself electing to skip the anthem- but if I was looking for a way to create conversation, this is apparently it. We're talking about it, but not well and not respectfully.

I'm not shy about sharing my opinion, but as a general rule I don't talk politics or religion, and debates make me uncomfortable. I've never protested anything but bad food. I'm no Julia Sugarbaker, and I certainly don't write on this subject like Aaron Sorkin. I've never made a public stand, so even if my voice shakes- I have to say, I can't understand why we aren't talking about the root issue rather than polarization on standing for the anthem. Why are we saying terrible things in a hateful way to the people you have to "friend" to interact with? We have serious problems we need to deal with- this one SHOULD be easy.

I'm a female millennial minority- so I'm genetically predisposed for a stance here, but I didn't actually start out on the pro #takeaknee side. So to refocus the discussion, I'll suck it up and read whatever horrible comments you might choose to leave me. I've been reading some doozies. I'll be happy if my logic can help some people understand something that should actually be pretty simple.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

You say something very key every time you declare your love and devotion to our great country. "With Liberty and Justice For All." I can't think of a time where it would be appropriate to "disrespect the flag," or to not take every opportunity to honor those that carry the flag into battle. I can now see that modifying our celebration to leave room for change should help uphold its ideals and establish peace and the safety of its people.
They have the liberty, and they want justice.

You can't separate race and rights from this conversation, it IS the conversation. And if you think about it, this protest, in fact, honors the flag and what it stands for in a way that embodies our rights as Americans. At least, that's the objective. We celebrate the flag because of what it represents- the sacrifices made to protect the ideals we were founded upon. We take a moment to gather as people and celebrate the thing that shows the world that we are a nation indivisible, a place where everyone should have access to these two basic things, liberty and justice. We teach kids these words, that they are so important they must start each day with them. We sing this song, we cross our hearts and say the words- but are we meaning them? Are they true? We've never been so divisible, and not all of our people are experiencing freedom and just treatment.

That's what the football teams are doing. They are the brave in the land of the free. They aren't protecting Americans as soldiers at war, they are using their high profiles and visibility to peaceably enact the change they want to see for a targeted group of disenfranchised people. They take a knee when a player is hurt, and now they take a knee to show that there are still people hurting. Celebrity comes with a lot of good and bad, but the good celebrities use their platform to fight the bad things they see in the world.

Bono, Kristen Bell, George Clooney, JJ Watt- they use their celebrity well and eloquently battle for causes that are important to them. Unfortunately this cause got Colin Kaepernick as it's talking head and he's not a great spokesperson. I hate what President Donald J. Trump said, but it sparked debate and gave CK's one man battle some fuel. I cannot believe its 60 years later and we need another Rosa Parks to spark another revolution for people of color.

One man's activity is an action, an organization's is a movement. When CK didn’t stand for the anthem I didn't agree. I thought he was being a raging douche and there was never a reason good enough to not stand, reflect, and honor. I didn't think the anthem was something we should take a stand against- this wasn’t the time or the place. The protest changed from a refusal to acknowledge it to participating in a way that honors the flag and the wrongfully fallen, back to not participating. If we could all take a knee, we could make a difference for people we have been shown time and again do not enjoy the same privileges we supposedly hold self-evident. I've changed my mind because I want the same thing, and I think deep down that you do too.

They say not speaking out is white privilege at its finest. You don’t feel strongly enough about anything to speak up about wrong because you have never experienced something so unfair through no fault of your own. So yes, a careless tweet motivated some rich guys to take a stand with an action we deem unacceptable as Americans. Can you picture it from a side without the privilege? A side that is experiencing daily treatment we also deem unacceptable as Americans? Can we handle a little discomfort every Sunday to ensure the comfort of our friends and neighbors who had nothing to do with the color of their skin and the consequences they face for it? He did something shocking to get people thinking and talking and he's unemployed because of it.

The anthem and its ceremony are so deeply ingrained in our culture, we automatically observe the ritual without much thought. He does not give good sound bytes, but he takes direct hits to the head for a living, and he was brave enough to make an unpopular decision and attempt to make a difference. He has started a conversation, and by not standing, the NFL is standing up for people that need help. They aren't giving up their seats on the bus.

Entire teams have decided to stand against hate and disrespect. The majority of these players are wealthy educated black men that put on uniforms and give you something to cheer for every Sunday. They take a beating for your entertainment. They want to draw attention to people who didn’t sign up to get smacked around. It's a cause that affects their families, friends, and communities. The decision to unify as teams (pretty much all owned by rich white Republican men- who thought enough about honoring America to have the Anthem played at every game) to do something perceived as disrespectful to the flag and our country could not have been easy and should be commended not condemned. No one would voluntarily choose to pass on an opportunity to celebrate what makes us great- unless maybe they thought by doing so, they could actually make a difference. This will all end and we'll all stop being butthurt about the issue if the conversation becomes change.

So while I can see both sides, I've picked the one that says we ALL have the rights the flag represents. Id rather we side with standing up for what's right rather than standing for tradition. If it means a temporary "disrespect" so the nation it reflects all has respect... I think I can be ok with it. They aren't burning flags, they are non-violently soldiering on for America.

This whole thing sucks, and I want it to go away. I could definitely do without the bickering about the demonstration, but the conversation about achieving equality should not stop. I want the problem solved so that the flag can fly and we can all proudly solute it as veterans of a peaceful war to protect its people.

People have to do uncomfortable and scary things to create change. That could be on a battlefield, astroturf, or a facebook status update.

Meg Linsey & Tyler Cain- you patriotic Americans brought tears to my eyes. I am so proud of you. Hang in there!

With Love,
A proud granddaughter, cousin, and friend of veterans, and a first-generation American daughter of a family that escaped a very heavily protested war to get to this great country.