In Honor of the United States Armed Services

[BullNBear52]

I said there were 2 sides to the CK story. Well, I was wrong. There are 3, actually. There is the historical side too. I had forgotten the wording of the 3rd verse, although I knew it was about slavery.
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Since San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the playing of the national anthem last week, he has received a predictable backlash of vile, racist criticism. But he has also received a ton of support. The list of those who stand with Kaepernick now includes United States military veterans who have unabashedly thrown their support behind his right to protest in whatever manner he sees fit. The hashtag #VeteransforKaepernick has been trending for the last day or so, with many current and former service members declaring they serve in the U.S. military to protect Kaepernick’s right to protest, and not for police brutality or racism of the sort that Kaepernick referenced in his comments to ESPN explaining why he was protesting.

Part of the backlash against Kaepernick came in the form of countless condemnations of him for being “disrespectful” to the many veterans of the United States military “who died for our freedom,” hence, the numerous military vets coming to Kaepernick’s defense. Such support, in that petri dish of vile hatred known as the Twittersphere, is certainly a welcome sign. But military veterans should never have been dragged into this in the first place.

The U.S. has been involved in 12 major, de facto declared wars. As of Memorial Day in 2015, just over 1 million Americans lost their lives due to those wars. None of those wars however, were to defend the United States from foreign enemies hellbent on taking American’s freedoms away from them and ripping up the Constitution. On the contrary, the United States, more often than not, was the one doing the taking.

Just look at the War of 1812, the second war the newly-formed United States participated in after the Revolutionary War. Fought to yank Canada away from the British Empire, this is the war that gave birth to the Star Spangled Banner—the U.S.’s (subsequently adopted) national anthem. The national anthem—the one that Colin Kaepernick remained seated for as it played at the beginning of his preseason game. The national anthem—the one that all of us learn in school and, more than likely, can recite effortlessly because it’s been drilled into us for so long. The national anthem—the one that contains a verse that celebrates the death of black people who fought for the British in an effort to free themselves from American slavery.

As John Schwarz wrote in The Intercept on Aug. 28:

Almost no one seems to be aware that even if the U.S. were a perfect country today, it would be bizarre to expect African-American players to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Why? Because it literally celebrates the murder of African-Americans.

Few people know this because we only ever sing the first verse. But read the end of the third verse and you’ll see why “The Star-Spangled Banner” is not just a musical atrocity, it’s an intellectual and moral one, too:

No refuge could save the hireling and slave From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave, And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

So yeah, it’s great that Kaepernick continues to receive support from various quarters for his right to protest the police murders of people of color, and that includes the support of U.S. military veterans. But if people are going to drag veterans into a fight, they need to be honest and forthright about the reasons for that fight.

That’s the way you show proper respect to your soldiers.

Thanks for the reference.

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