It's Not Disrespectful to Protest the National Anthem

It's Not Disrespectful to Protest the National Anthem

...

If you were a high school history teacher trying to show students what the First Amendment is all about — what it allows you to do and what it doesn’t — especially in the wake of the National Anthem protests spurred by Colin Kaepernick, how would you do it?

Because if there's one thing we've learned in the wake of his protests, it's that people clearly don't understand the First Amendment. Or patriotism. It's not unpatriotic not to stand for the Anthem.

It's almost funny how his critics claim he should have to stand for the Anthem because people died for his rights... the rights he's exercising by not standing up for the National Anthem.

They don't seem to have any respect for the people who want our country to be better, so they're willing to draw attention to its flaws in the hopes that we can fix them. 

That, to me, is patriotic. Far more than people who think patriotism amounts to nothing more than obedience and ritual.

So in North Carolina, a high school teacher by the name of Lee Francis taught a lesson o the subject by invoking Texas v. Johnson, the 1989 Supreme Court case that overturned bans on desecrating the United States flag.

Before that ruling, you could theoretically get punished for burning the flag or ripping it up. It was considered, like, a sacred symbol.

And then, to show students what the Supreme Court now allows, the teacher desecrated a flag. Specifically, he stepped on it three times.

A couple of students who clearly didn’t understand the point of the lesson walked out of class after it was over, and complained to the principal. 

But they really missed the point here. If they didn't like what he did, that's fine. They can argue against it. Their discomfort isn't a reason to ban what he did.

As the ACLU said, the freedoms and principles that the flag represents include the freedom to step on it. 

The administration, unfortunately, didn't see it the same way. They initially put the teacher on paid administrative leave, then suspended him for 10 days without pay.

So how’s that for a lesson, kids? The First Amendment only protects popular speech! A teacher who makes you feel uncomfortable in class will be punished for it! 

What a horrible takeaway.

Now let me add a caveat here. The First Amendment doesn't let you get away with anything. You can't yell fire in a crowded theater. And teachers, especially, are limited in what they're allowed to do. They can't preach in the classroom, for example. 

But what this teacher did wasn't dangerous and it wasn't advocacy. He wasn't telling the students they should step on flags. 

He was merely demonstrating the fact that some people take symbols so seriously that they'll go after someone else who doesn't. 

Which is exactly what happened to him.

I remember a few years ago, there was a similar true story of a college professor who asked students to step on a piece of paper with the word “Jesus” on it. 

Most of them, he predicted, wouldn't do it. They would hesitate or refuse. That’s because the symbolic nature of the paper was so powerful.

We see this type of thinking everywhere. A lot of Christians would never want to rip a page out of the Bible... even if there are tons of copies around. They think they're doing something wrong.

You could give me 5 copies of a picture of my baby and I would feel kinda weird ripping one of them up. I feel weird deleting a blurry picture of my baby from my phone.

But that's the power of symbolism. And we have to get over it. There's a difference between a symbol and the idea it's meant to convey. Let's stand for the ideas, not the icons.

By the way, that college professor? He got punished for even trying that lesson. For doing his job and getting the students to think critically.

This is an issue atheists ought to care about because many of us fight against symbols all the time. 

We’re told to say the Pledge of Allegiance, and some of us remain seated when that happens because we don’t want to pledge to a nation “under God” or one that falsely states we have “justice for all.” 

Join the conversation. Leave your questions and comments below and we'll try to address them in future videos. Don't forget to subscribe for more!

Also, follow us at ...

[aaronp.]

Everybody likes Free Speech until they don't agree with someone's free speech.

[aggelosharlas]

you know you are early on an atheist's video when there's no dislikes

[mikeh]

"He can't preach to you in math class" Jesus died for your sins and cosins

[DeidaraIsBestKATS]

I didn't stand for the pledge in school (at all) and I was bullied every time, called a communist, told to go back where i came from (I'm Native American?), I can deal with all that, but I was kicked out of class twice for it and told if i don't then to not come to class at all or wait until the pledge was over to go into my class. Which i did and resulted in multiple tardies that they wouldn't excuse.

[OmegaMaliqay]

there is more black to cop violence than vice versa

[jtbrad]

The Pledge should be completely taken out of elementary schools. A pledge has no meaning unless the person saying it understands the words behind it and there is no way a first or second grade student fully comprehends what they are being told to repeat. Obviously this is a little off topic from the subject of this video but it's essentially government indoctrination of children.

[pacman]

"Governments don't mandate patriotism. Governments earn patriotism."
-Jesse Ventura

[ProductionsByChelsea]

My dad served in the Navy for 20 years. As a result, he had a strong sense of patriotism that he instilled in me from an early age. In high school, I think I began to challenge this a bit. I had gone to a private school for several years, where we didn't even do the pledge, so when I transferred back to public school, I wasn't used to it anymore. I began watching my classmates and a lot of them didn't stand. I realized it wasn't a requirement, so I began exercising my right to choose if I was going to stand or not. Some days I would stand, others I wouldn't (honestly, most of the time it was because I was lazy/tired and didn't feel like standing). Sometimes I would stand in solidarity with my country but not recite the pledge. Sometimes I would recite the pledge from my seat because I didn't feel like standing. I continued to experiment until I figured out what worked for me. No matter what I did though, I didn't stick out much because in every class, the numbers of people standing or sitting were about equal. This was in 2007-2009, before "take a knee" became a thing, in Kentucky - a predominantly conservative state (although in a metropolitan area, which in Kentucky are predominantly more progressive).
Where I have arrived with this whole topic is I will now stand for the national anthem and pledge of allegiance, as a personal choice out of respect to my dad and several other family members who have served in the military and as public servants. Also, I do this as a reminder that we were indeed founded to be a nation "with liberty and justice for all, " even though historically we haven't been great at that, and I want to express my hope that we will get there in the near future. But I omit the words "Under god" because as an atheist I don't agree with them, and as a humanist I know those words should not exist in the pledge of allegiance that is displayed on government property and recited in schools run by the state.
I think the right to choose whether or not to recite the pledge of allegiance actually helped me to have a greater appreciation for it.

[connerjd]

People should have complained more and protested against that school.

[Moth-ManRemasters]

Thank goodness you did this, it's so stupid how people think that a person should die for ripping a flag

[HeyIFoundACamera]

You're forgetting that most people are idiots, and will not understand your message...or the first amendment.

[SomeOne-exhk]

I walked out of my keyboarding class in high school because my teacher had a lesson to have us type up passages from the Bible. I got suspended for a week. Then I had after school detention for three days after. I skipped those three days, and got suspended in school. So I skipped those as well and went to class. Got suspended for two weeks for it.

[hagakure]

I'm a combat vet and an atheist. I never stand for the pledge or the national anthem. I'm sick of are govt using vets as a talking point and never actually doing what it takes to really help us. like when the GOP blocked a bill to ad more VA hospitals. sad thing is this pisses a lot of people off. I've even had other vets tell me im a disgrace for not standing for pledge/anthem.

[BMWAddictE]

It's a shame you get suspended for teaching the Constitution. This country is full of soft, easily offended people

[celts]

"The land of the Free" is found in EVERY VERSE of the Star Spangled Banner which to me says the U.S.A is suppose to be about freedom which includes the freedom to protest. So ironically because of that line, those who think it wrong to protest the National Anthem are those who really protest it!

[melkorbelegurth]

When I was in school, I regularly chose to not say the pledge, nor stand up. At pep rallies I would not sing the national anthem nor stand for it, or take my hat off. I was always heckled and treated with disrespect when doing this and was accused of not being patriotic. Your video was spot on. How you described it is pretty much how it happened to me. I have no respect for this countries way of making any and all varieties of minorities feel hated and uncomfortable. But as soon as we the minority opinion step in and make THEM uncomfortable, there's a problem. It's true that freedom of speech and expression is only tolerated when you're speaking or expressing yourself in a way that the majority can approve of.

[thursday]

I'm a Christian and I agree that it's wrong to, "pledge allegiance, " to a flag when our history shows so much blatant hypocrisy. Essentially this practice makes us worship a false god.

[UltimateSNPA]

I stopped standing for the flag in high school because of the under God thing

[Omaryllo]

can you do a video about the dangers of religion? specifically extremism. In Christianity, we have homophobia and stoning, in Islam, we have death sentences for disagreement, jihadism, sexism and stoning. There's the common argument of "not all followers of this religion" but that often excuses this kind of dangerous behavior. When you honestly compare these extremist behaviors to their holy scripts, we see that most of it is justified within their faith. It is a touchy subject, but you haven't been afraid of tackling any touchy subject before, so I really hope you can consider it

[travietrav]

I've had plenty of teachers preach during class