The U.S. Does Not Need Compulsory Patriotism

San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick has stirred up a major controversy by sitting, not standing, for the national anthem. There are two aspects of this controversy that should cause serious concern: 1.) the efforts by law enforcement to restrict the freedom of speech of U.S. citizens; and 2,) the attempt to label Kaepernick as disrespecting those military service members who were killed in armed conflicts.

In the wake of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, four or five St. Louis Rams football players ran to the playing field, stopped, and assumed the surrender position: "Hands up! Don't shoot!" The  president of the St. Louis police union, representing both county and city officers, demanded an apology from the St. Louis Ram's management; furthermore, he wanted a series of meetings to set norms on how the players should interact with law enforcement.

The president of the New York City benevolent police association blamed protesters of excessive use of force by police for the assassination of two NYC police officers sitting in a police vehicle.

When David Clarke, the sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, spoke at the Republican Convention, he said the major point he wanted to make was that "Blue Lives Matter." Clarke, and those who unconditionally support him, don't seem to understand that for a long stretch of U.S. history, black lives didn't matter, or mattered very little. In recent history, the nation has seen and heard numerous instances in which law enforcement officers mistreated minorities, especially African Americans. There have been too many cases in which officers have fatally shot unarmed people. Sheriff Clarke certainly disrespects Black Lives Matter, as he has called members "sub-human creeps," "garbage," and "black slime." Clarke has also infamously said that there is no police violence in America.

Most recently, the San Francisco Police Officer's Association demanded an apology from the San Francisco 49er's management, because Kaepernick had worn socks depicting pigs wearing police officer hats to practice. Some Santa Clara police officers threatened not to do security for the 49er football team, until deterred by a police chief who had a greater understanding of protected civil liberties than they did.

The bottom line here is that law enforcement should not be the arbitrator of what U.S. citizens can say and do in exercising their freedom of speech.

Another aspect of the attacks on Colin Kaepernick is the charge that he has disrespected those who died defending the U.S. in armed conflicts. He did this by sitting, not standing, an act not violent, histrionic, nor damaging to person or property. Are we to assume that that those in the armed forces wanted the outcome of their sacrifices to be a conformist society, in which there was compelled patriotism and specific rules on how that patriotism must be expressed?

Even if we disagree with Colin Kaepernick's contention that law enforcement officers mistreat minorities and criticize him for having no remedy for the problem -- although he did contribute $1 million to social agencies working on the problem -- we should respect his right to express his concern, even if it was done through a change in his bodily position.