An open letter Colin Kaepernick:
The US was founded on the principles of freedom, liberty and equal opportunity for all. Unfortunately, at the time of the founding, the "all" of that statement referred to Landed, White, Anglo-Saxon, mostly Christian Men.
While I hardly support slavery, it's hard to totally blame the founding fathers for it. Many of them (like Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, for example) were staunchly against slavery, while others (like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson) were born into the system and didn't quite see a way out of it.
In the 19th Century, when civil rights (even if that's not what they called it) were being sought, women, who weren't in the "all" group either, fought more for abolition of slavery. It was only after slavery was abolished that women actually began fighting for rights for themselves.
Nowadays, here in the 21st Century, things have changed for the better. Educational opportunities are available (and becoming more available) to descendants of former slaves and former suffragettes. While things are by no means equal (rich people of any stripe often have an upper hand in all things), things have improved and continue to improve.
This country, while, hardly perfect, is one of the best countries in the world when it comes to equality of opportunity for all ethnicities, all religions, both genders, and all sexual orientations. We're not perfect. No one is. But if you go to many countries in Africa, Asia and even Europe, you may find that equality of opportunity is non-existent. Women, Gays, Jews, Christians, and often Blacks, are treated at best as second class citizens, at worst, evil beings who deserve death.
I've always thought that the US would do better from a philosophical perspective if our national anthem were either "G-d Bless America" (though this might be an issue for Atheists) or "America the Beautiful" (I lean more toward the latter). I'm not happy that our National Anthem is war-centered. But now, with an enemy that respects strength, I'm having second thoughts about that.
You, Mr. Kaepernick, are what is best in this nation. As a biracial American, you can unite all Americans behind not only "The Star Spangled Banner" but "Lift Every Voice and Sing", popularly knows as the Black National Anthem. It's a beautiful piece, Mr. Kaepernick. It's not a divisive song, rather it is a uniting song. Just the title is unifying -- Lift EVERY Voice.
If you're going to focus on the negative, Mr. Kaepernick, if you're going to concentrate on the inequalities that haven't yet been corrected, rather than how far our country has come and how much better it is to live in the US than so many other countries, that is divisive. It's sort of hard to take you terribly seriously (about how the US is oppressing Blacks) when you are making more money in a year than I have made in my entire life. It's hard to take you terribly seriously when you get paid for playing a game. Perhaps you feel guilty that you are making so much money for playing a game when there are so many children in our country who only get school lunches for food each day and live in slums where drive-by shootings are de rigueur. If so, why not put your money where your tush (that tush that's sitting during the national anthem) is? By sitting, you are not just dissing the US, you are dissing your teammates. You are dissing every American who has worked hard to get where (s)he is in life. You are also dissing every person who really is oppressed, every little girl who gets her genitals cut off or gets married off to a 50 year old pediphile. You are dissing every Black African sold into slavery in the Muslim world. You are dissing every young woman kidnapped by Boko Haram and sold into marriage to an older man and every Afghani boy who is molested by an older man (who was molested by an older man when he was a boy).
Think about it. If you want to make the world a better place, take out your checkbook, mentor a poor American child, petition legislators to play both anthems and change laws. Use your influence to improve the world, not to be divisive. And I, for one, would stand with you.
The US was founded on the principles of freedom, liberty and equal opportunity for all. Unfortunately, at the time of the founding, the "all" of that statement referred to Landed, White, Anglo-Saxon, mostly Christian Men.
While I hardly support slavery, it's hard to totally blame the founding fathers for it. Many of them (like Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, for example) were staunchly against slavery, while others (like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson) were born into the system and didn't quite see a way out of it.
In the 19th Century, when civil rights (even if that's not what they called it) were being sought, women, who weren't in the "all" group either, fought more for abolition of slavery. It was only after slavery was abolished that women actually began fighting for rights for themselves.
Nowadays, here in the 21st Century, things have changed for the better. Educational opportunities are available (and becoming more available) to descendants of former slaves and former suffragettes. While things are by no means equal (rich people of any stripe often have an upper hand in all things), things have improved and continue to improve.
This country, while, hardly perfect, is one of the best countries in the world when it comes to equality of opportunity for all ethnicities, all religions, both genders, and all sexual orientations. We're not perfect. No one is. But if you go to many countries in Africa, Asia and even Europe, you may find that equality of opportunity is non-existent. Women, Gays, Jews, Christians, and often Blacks, are treated at best as second class citizens, at worst, evil beings who deserve death.
I've always thought that the US would do better from a philosophical perspective if our national anthem were either "G-d Bless America" (though this might be an issue for Atheists) or "America the Beautiful" (I lean more toward the latter). I'm not happy that our National Anthem is war-centered. But now, with an enemy that respects strength, I'm having second thoughts about that.
You, Mr. Kaepernick, are what is best in this nation. As a biracial American, you can unite all Americans behind not only "The Star Spangled Banner" but "Lift Every Voice and Sing", popularly knows as the Black National Anthem. It's a beautiful piece, Mr. Kaepernick. It's not a divisive song, rather it is a uniting song. Just the title is unifying -- Lift EVERY Voice.
- Lift every voice and sing
- 'Til earth and heaven ring,
- Ring with the harmonies of Liberty See all the lyrics here
The Harmonies of Liberty are for all. And if you were to use your influence to get "Lift Every Voice and Sing" along with "The Star Spangled Banner", it would encourage everyone to stand for both as we Jews stand for both "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Hatikvah" (the Hope, the National Anthem of Israel and, to some degree, the Anthem of all Jews in the post-Israeli-Statehood years).
Think about it. If you want to make the world a better place, take out your checkbook, mentor a poor American child, petition legislators to play both anthems and change laws. Use your influence to improve the world, not to be divisive. And I, for one, would stand with you.
1 comment:
Bravo!
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