With everything going on in the world there is a lot of negativity and division going on. However, with all the movements, protests, and riots there needs to be something to still unify us and keep us as one nation. In my opinion the National Anthem should be that – especially before sporting events because if there is one thing Americans can come together for, it’s sports.
When you think of the National Anthem the first thing that comes to mind is standing up before sporting events before to game starts to show respect for America and the military. But the past year or two players have been kneeling or not going along with the anthem to try to get the world’s attention and show awareness for police brutality, especially against minorities.
Now don’t get me wrong I support the Black Lives Matter Movement; I understand why players did what they did and why teams are creating new policies surrounding the anthem. So far, the NBA Mavericks have changed their policy to not playing the national anthem at all before games. When it comes to the NFL, they still will play the anthem but if players do not want to participate, they must stay in the locker room, nobody can kneel or sit down while on the field. However, the National Anthem and flag do not represent the police in my opinion, it represents the soldiers in the military who fought for our freedom and rights. I do not lump the police in the same category as the military and I don’t think others should either – the police do not represent the flag nor the national anthem. So why disrespect it or take it away?
Personally, I usually don’t talk about this kind of stuff because I don’t like to pick sides and I don’t like confrontation when it comes to matters as big as this. But when you have many family members in the military as I do, you get defensive when you feel that they aren’t getting represented in the right way because of a few bad apples who shouldn’t even be in their category.