There is a post that has gone viral on social media. It is a Retired Marine Col. reading his open letter to the commissioner of the NFL castigating him for allowing the black football players in the NFL to protest the lack of equality for the African Americans in this country by refusing to stand when the American flag is presented. It is a well written, very angry letter read to the background of a patriotic C&W song. I hope you will forgive me for not knowing the song and who sings it, I am not a big C&W fan so I don’t recognize it. I know why this letter has gone viral, it touches on everything which our country holds dear, the sanctity of our military, our flag, our freedom, and our rights. However, I think that in Col. Powers’ patriotic fervor for the ideal of America, he is overlooking the reality of what many Americans live. In this ode to the privilege of being American, this celebration of the rights and freedoms ideally afforded to Americans, Col. Powers and his audience are allowing idealism and sentiment to obscure the reality of the millions of Americans whose rights and freedoms are abridged, ignored and violated in this nation every day. Therefore, I felt compelled to write a reply to Col. Powers.

 

Dear Col. Powers:
My brother came home from Viet Nam in an American flag-draped coffin. His death, and the disrespect for his service which followed helped to define my life, as it, indeed, helped to shape our nation. So, you may be shocked to know that I disagree with just about everything you wrote in your letter.

Oh, I don’t disagree that football players, to a large degree, are spoiled legends in their own minds, nor that real heroes wear the uniforms and helmets of firefighters, soldiers, and policemen; not the helmets of game players. But, I disagree with the anger and disgust with which you addressed those young, black football players for exercising their first amendment right to peacefully protest an issue whose existence many Americans want to deny,  and from which even more want to hide.

You see, I am proud that my brother gave his life for what he believed was the defense of his country and the freedom and equality it provides. But he gave his life so that all who live in this nation might be free and equal. And as much as we all hate to talk about it, people of color do not enjoy equality in America today.

Look at the prison population; look at the homeless population; look at the disproportionate unemployment rates; look at the unarmed young black men being shot dead in the streets; look at the disgraceful schools whose students are predominantly non-white. Hell, just open your eyes and look anywhere; it is not being hidden or even disguised.

Yet, we don’t want to see it. We don’t want to think that we are prejudiced. We don’t want to see ourselves as racist. We do not want to be crucified for that sin. So, instead, we deny its existence. Well, being prejudice is not a sin; it is a natural way of seeing our world which was largely shaped by slavery and its aftermath. No, it isn’t a sin to see African American’s through the lens of prejudice. However, it is a sin to hide from the truth of racism, especially our own, instead of looking at it openly and honestly and participating in a discussion of how it might be stopped.

I believe those young men who protest by refusing to stand for the flag, by refusing to celebrate the symbol of a nation of freedom and equality, would like to be celebrating the good fortune of living in that nation along with the rest of us. But, unfortunately, you see, they don’t live in the same nation as we do, Col Powers. They live in the shadow nation from which we hide and whose existence we deny. The one where, although a black athlete can earn a seven-figure income, it can’t buy him the respect, the safety, the protection or the inclusion the rest of us enjoy as a guarantee of our constitution.

Oh yes,  I‘m aware that the constitution guarantees everyone the same rights. But when those rights are not honored and the disenfranchised cry foul, when they ask for our help to address this inequality they suffer, this denial of their rights, we brush them off. We deny the evidence and we deny the problem. We blame the victim. And when they exercise their first amendment right to protest our refusal to protect them, we use a time-tested American hot-button issue, disrespecting our flag, to deflect the legitimacy of what they are saying on to what they are doing through an interpretation of their behavior that is sure to cause American outrage. And we, the American people, are more than happy to go along with the deflection, because it means that one more time, we escape the need to admit the problem, to look at the problem, and to talk about the problem.

Soon, their behavior is being admonished by their president telling the nation these men should be ashamed of themselves for disrespecting our flag. He tells us that we should boycott their games; as if somehow, their refusal to respect a symbol that we cherish but, which in reality, has held little, if any, meaning for them, should invalidate the reality of their complaint. This is the same president, mind you, who defended, as “good people”, white nationalists who recently caused violence and murder while protesting against the removal of symbols celebrating the era of Jim Crow laws; laws, by the way, which allowed thousands of black citizens to be humiliated, beaten and killed with impunity.

The irony of this situation is heavy laden. We want these men to sing our songs and salute our flag as they quietly, act as if they enjoy, along with the rest of us, all of the rights afforded us by our constitution. And because they won’t, we want to complete their subjugation by taking away their right to protest their inequality.

Col. Powers, I actually didn’t know my brother well. I knew him only from the point of view of a young girl with an undeniable case of hero worship; I was just 13 when he died. And he was a very impressionable teenager with dreams of being a hero in the flesh, fueled by John Wayne patriotism. Those dreams were snuffed out at the ripe old age of 19 when he died for his country and returned home a pariah, rather than a hero; such were the times we lived in.

But, I hope I am not wrong in believing he was a young man who knew that the rights symbolized by the flag are more important than is the flag which symbolizes those rights. Our inalienable rights are what makes our country great, the flag is a mere symbol of those rights. We must stop nullifying the rights in favor of deifying the symbols. My brother fought and died for our rights, I hope he did not die for a piece of cloth, not even one on which our flag is printed. Those individuals refusing to stand for our flag in protest, are exercising one of the very rights for which so many have died. I am ashamed at our attempts to demonize them for doing so.

Although I do not necessarily agree with the behavior the protesters chose for their protest, I have no problem understanding why they chose it. The flag is a symbol of all that Americans hold dear; equality, freedom, justice for all. As such, it is the perfect symbol of protest to make a statement that one does not enjoy those things for which the flag stands.

The protesters, in this case, needed something controversial enough to cause outrage, an outrage they hoped they might redirect on to the fact of the shadow nation. I pray that this time we won’t allow our attention to be deflected from the real and legitimate complaints of the disenfranchised.

I hope that here and now we will bring into the healing light of day our dirty little, not-so-secret, secret and face reality. Because otherwise, Col. Powers, my grandchildren, along with millions of other African American men women and children, will be forced to remain citizens of that shadow nation. And, that would break my heart. And Col. Powers, it should break yours too.

 

Respectfully,
A patriot who will not idealize the country she loves but will, instead, insist that America be accountable to all of Her citizens.