In the news and on social media recently, there have been lots of people arguing about whether a certain group of people should be standing or kneeling during some specific renditions of the Star Spangled Banner. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see how this in any way directly impacts the lives of anyone I have seen be upset about it.
Let’s look at this from the point of view of our Liberty Framework. Does this activity in any way violate anyone’s rights? Has it killed or harmed anyone? Has it damaged anyone’s property? No. And since it hasn’t negatively affected anyone’s life at all, I don’t know see why anyone would be so upset about it as to call for boycotts and people being fired.
So are these people breaking some code of patriotism? Maybe. If you believe standing and saluting the flag is required for you to be patriotic, by all means, do exactly that. But don’t forget that one of the principles that patriotism is supposed to stand for is that everyone has a right to express themselves in whatever manner they see fit; including not standing or saluting a flag during a song. So is it really worth coercing people to salute a flag and stand during a song? Even if that coercion doesn’t come from government or actual violence?
I still salute the flag, and stand during the national anthem, because I still respect and believe in the principles it once stood for. But I am in no way upset about anyone who doesn’t wish to do so. Because our government, and the people who would like to force everyone to “be patriotic”, no longer represent those principles.
Is any who wishes to boycott a sporting league within their rights to do so? Of course they are. And if that league wants to set some rules regarding this issue of the national anthem and what its players must do during it, and fire any players who failed to comply, they would be fully in their rights to do so as well. But if that is what you would advocate, you are no longer a patriot. You have become part of the propaganda wing of a tyrannical government that is wholly antithetical to the founding of this country.
P.S. The tradition of the players standing on the field during the national anthem didn’t even start until the Department of Defense started paying them to do it [1]. If that isn’t a demonstration about how this whole thing is propaganda and not patriotism, I don’t know what is.