Letter: Protest is a test of bravery
Published 6:35 pm Monday, September 10, 2018
- FILE - In this Oct. 2, 2016, file photo, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, left, and safety Eric Reid kneel during the national anthem before an NFL football game against the Dallas Cowboys in Santa Clara, Calif. The NFL players' union says former San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid filed a grievance against the league, alleging that he remains unsigned as a result of collusion by owners. Reid had joined former teammate Colin Kaepernick two seasons ago in kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
The United States of America is not a military dictatorship. When our beautiful flag unfurls, it is not solely a symbol of the armed forces; it represents freedom and justice for all.
If you think those rights are dispensed equally in the USA, you are not dealing in reality. Citizens have struggled mightily for that equality, be it the right to own land, the right to vote, the right to an equal education, the right of equal pay, the right to marry the person they love, and the list goes on.
Taking the knee in protest is an appeal to draw attention to injustice and the need to seek solutions. There are those who have twisted the protest into an anti-military slant for their own purposes because they don’t care about equality. Each verse of our national anthem ends in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” Sometimes being brave means to protest so that all may be free.
— Donna Prunkl
Salisbury
