I am a native New Yorkers so I have hated San Francisco sports teams since 1957 when the baseball Giants slinked away to the West Coast. But San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick is forcing me to reevaluate my fundamental sports fan nationalism.
At two pre-season football games Kaepernick refused to stand at attention while the national anthem was played over the public address system reigniting debate over what it means to be a responsible citizen in a democratic society. Congress designated The Star-Spangled Banner as the national anthem in 1931 and it has been played at sporting events since World War II. Kaepernick explained his actions were a protest against police brutality and racial injustice in the United States.
I generally stand respectfully when the national anthem is played at the opening of baseball games, although I do not sing along or salute. However, despite hostile stares form other Yankee fans, I will not stand when God Bless America is played at the stadium during the 7th inning stretch. Its sole purpose is to promote jingoistic patriotism. God, if there is a God, does not take sides in war or baseball games.
Kaepernick’s stand, or refusal to stand, is an opening for teachers to discuss with students the meaning of citizenship and its responsibilities in a democratic society. For teachers, the point of contention is usually recital of the Pledge of Allegiance, which is required at the opening of the school day in about half of the states.
In New York State recital of the Pledge is mandated by “Education Law § 802. Instruction relating to the flag; holidays.”
“It shall be the duty of the commissioner to prepare, for the use of the public schools of the state, a program providing for a salute to the flag and a daily pledge of allegiance to the flag, and instruction in its correct use and display which shall include, as a minimum, specific instruction regarding respect for the flag of the United States of America, its display and use as provided by federal statute and regulation and such other patriotic exercises as may be deemed by him to be expedient, under such regulations and instructions as may best meet the varied requirements of the different grades in such schools.”
Soon after September 11, 2001, the New York City Board of Education passed a resolution expressing its commitment to enforce the “pledge law” in city schools.
However, while cities, states, and education bodies can mandate a pledge ceremony at the start of the school day, according to the United States Supreme Court they cannot require that students and teachers recite the pledge. In West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943), the Supreme Court recognized an individual’s right of conscience and religious freedom, ruling that schools could not force students to recite the Pledge. Students are not unpatriotic if they do not say the pledge.
I have exercised my right of conscience since I was eight-years-old and in the third grade. My father told my younger brother and me that we had to be respectful of other people, but we did not have to say the pledge. He was angry because in 1954 President Eisenhower and Congress added the phrase “under God” to the Pledge, and he felt this violated our family’s religious freedom. I continued this policy of respectful protest as a New York City teacher when I encouraged students to be respectful of others when the pledge was recited, but let them know they were not legally required to participate.
In a high school classroom, a good starting point for a classroom discussion of Colin Kaepernick, the National Anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance, and rights and responsibilities of citizens in a democratic society is a speech delivered to the United States Senate in 1872 by Carl Schurz of Wisconsin. Schurz was an immigrant to the United States from Prussia (now Germany) and served his adopted country as a Senator, an ambassador, a Cabinet Secretary, a Civil Service reformer, and as an American Civil War Union General. During Senate debate on the sale of surplus weapons to France during the Franco-Prussian War, Senator Matthew Carpenter, also from Wisconsin, accused Schurz of “unpatriotic motive” for opposing the sale, appealing to anti-immigrant prejudice and suggesting Schurz was being swayed by loyalty to Prussia.
Schurz’ response to Carpenter is an excellent introduction to the responsibility of citizens and what it means to support your country. He concluded his speech: “[I]f any wrong was committed, the people of the United States, as represented in their sovereign capacity by Congress, emphatically disapprove of it; that if any wrong was committed, the people are ready to resent it against their own servants? That is the way to destroy the pernicious effect of that precedent, and that is the duty of a true patriot. The Senator from Wisconsin cannot frighten me by exclaiming, ‘My country, right or wrong.’ In one sense I say so too. My country; and my country is the great American Republic. My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
I think Senator Carl Schurz would be pleased with the action taken by San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick, American patriot, and all those who defend democratic values by protesting against injustice. Personally, I plan to sit with Colin Kaepernick at sporting events in the future.
Click here to sign a petition supporting Colin Kaepernick and protesting against police violence against Black men and racism in American society.
