By Bailey Sparacia

Kneeling during the National Anthem started with Colin Kaepernick on the San Francisco 49ers. As of now, he no longer has a job. He started out protesting police brutality, but now it has become something more. Now, people are bending the knee for many different reasons, one being Donald Trump’s comments about the whole situation. He said that the NFL owners should, “get that son of a ***** off the field, right now, out? He’s fired.”

 

Many, if not all, of the 32 teams have taken a knee at some point during this season. The New Orleans Saints took a knee before the anthem, but proceeded to stand united as the anthem played. The Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones went down onto the field and kneeled along with his team. The Pittsburgh Steelers stayed inside their locker room while one player stood at the end of the tunnel with his hand over his heart. Our own Cleveland Browns had some of the players kneel during the anthem. The question is, is it right to kneel?

 

I feel as if President Trump’s approach was not appropriate, since as Americans we have the right to protest freely. Many people see the flag as something that represents not only the freedoms we have, but all the men and women who fight to keep our country safe. President Trump said that bending a knee during the anthem disrespected the military, but recently he disrespected a widow who recently lost her husband in action. Personally, I do not know what the right answer is. But, protesting things and having nice conversations about these kind of things keeps the freedom flowing. As wise Michael Scott said in the episode named “China” in The Office, “Y’know, a lot of people say if you dig long enough and hard enough you will get to China, and that may be the true, but what they don’t tell you is that if you dig long enough and hard enough in a conversation, you get to a friend. So here is to conversation.”