When Protesting the Flag is the Right Thing to Do (ePub)

This is a book that speaks about the recent ongoing protest that former professional quarterback Colin Kaepernick of the San Francisco Forty Niners initiated by protesting the performance of the National Anthem at the start of each of his football games. It describes in detail why the author thinks it is perfectly acceptable for anyone to protest the singing of the National Anthem and what it represents at any time. It starts with where the anthem came from and what the lyrics to the song actually refer to and mean. It covers the history of the battle the spawned the creation of the poem that became that anthem. This includes the historic courage the men who defended the garrison at the Battle of Baltimore when through and how that courage was represented in the poem itself by Sir Francis Scott Key, its author. Then it goes through what the flag actually represents, not only in design but in purpose and spirit. It covers how the anthem was initially introduced into baseball games as a marketing tool not a form of reverence, and when it spread to the other three major American sports as a form of reverence. How different stances on the flag have been taken through the years and how different ways that representation has been protested. It covers prior protests of the anthem through the years including some famous athletes that are considered heroes in American sports culture. Pictures of those various forms of protest are included to make the point very clear. It concludes with an interesting question: why only four of the major American sports actually use the anthem at the start of each of their games? Why only those four? Why, if only those four, is protesting the anthem considered such a problem? The book is designed to start a conversation by its readers on the value of free speech that is part of any protest.