But to the united state of
Humanity
And to the real public for which it stands
No nations under nature
Barely visible
We live only if justice is for all
And to the real public for which it stands
No nations under nature
Barely visible
We live only if justice is for all
It's amazing to me that anyone could criticize Colin Kaepernik or any other athlete for sitting out the national anthem or the pledge of allegiance. These athletes who are using their positions for social conscience are the closest thing we have to super heroes going today. They are putting their reputation and their paychecks on the line to stand up to a regime that openly mocks and exploits them. How can we criticize African Americans for not taking part in a sing-along about the violent origins of our nation, when those origins created the racist repression that our President chooses to defend today? The national anthem is just one more example in a never-ending list of examples of how American society is in love with violence, and glorifies its violent origin story of revolution, while omitting the part of the story about the genocide of native Americans and enslavement of Africans.
I think you would have to be truly crazy to sing along with that hack, irritating song about the "the bombs bursting in air" when those same weapons were quickly trained on your ancestors, forcing them to build our entire nation at gunpoint. As a person of color or a Native American, you would have to be truly schizophrenic to put your hand on your heart and sing along to that tired, cliched bit of propaganda about "the land of the free" when your ancestors were robbed, raped, killed, and double-crossed into near oblivion.
Fuck the national anthem. Fuck all these stupid flags and all songs that glorify war and killing. Nations are a human construct, flags and borders and passports are all in our minds, and even the best current systems we have were built on oppression and competition and lies. Do we really need to keep singing those stupid songs? If we make a truly honest attempt to right the wrongs of this country, starting with reparations for the ancestors of slaves and Native people, then we should make a new flag and a new song, and then we can all sing along with pride. Until then, taking a knee at a football game is a very gentle, civilized response, in the balance. Ronald the clown should count himself lucky every single day that he and his family don't get Robespierre'd.
The fact that we teach kids to stand at attention and recite the pledge of allegiance is also truly bizarre if you think about it. This country that prides itself on its fierce independence and tolerance wants its schoolchildren to recite their submission to a piece of colored cloth, and to a "Republic." Why? No thanks. I pledge allegiance to democracy and to nature and humanitarian morality. You can have your flag. Our republic is doing a very bad job these days in the "liberty and justice for all" department.
If all these overpaid athletes can actually bring some attention to the ongoing state of affairs of our hyper-militarized nation, great. The national anthem was the first cry of a nation that was created by war, and then used its power to subjugate others, to steal land and get free labor. The fact that the idiot freelance Hitler in the White House is trying to make America safe for racists again is enough reason not only to sit out the national anthem, but boycott it, cancel it, and start from scratch.
