Remember, the Reason for Kneeling During the National Anthem is to Call Attention to a Lack of Equality

In the United States over the weekend, we spent much of the time debating the merits of kneeling for the National Anthem.  Spurred by a tweet by the President, the debate focused on whether athletes should be permitted to kneel during the National Anthem as a form of protest.  Why President Trump decided to make this the time to disparage athletes who choose to express themselves by kneeling is something of a mystery, since Colin Kaepernick first kneeled for the National Anthem over a year ago and this is the third week of the NFL season. 

Nonetheless, his use of social media once again sparked both outrage and support from the American public.  There was also a large group of people who resented having the public attention focused in such a way, citing what they considered real problems, such as the devastation to Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria or the increasing tensions between the United States and North Korea.

But the problem both with the tone of the debate this weekend, as well as those who bemoaned that we were having this debate at all, is that attention was focused on the whether athletes should be permitted to kneel during the National Anthem, and not on why they were choosing to do so.

Let's face it.  It's not as if Colin Kaepernick woke up one day and thought about what behavior he could do that would anger the most football fans.  Kaepernick took a knee to protest.  In particular, he protested racial inequality in this country; an inequality that was highlighted by the spread of online videos showing police officers engaging in what many thought was unnecessarily violent behavior against African Americans.

This is a debate that makes many white Americans uncomfortable.  It forces Americans to consider that they have been receiving special treatment due to nothing more than the reason that they were born white.  This has been labeled as "white privilege."  And to many Americans, they don't want to think of themselves as privileged.  A good number are hard working, and view their position in life as a result of that hard work and the choice to do things "the right way."

But as I pointed out to my daughter last night, white privilege is alive and well in this country.  Just consider Walmart's state of the art security system: the elderly man at the exit choosing which customers to ask to see their receipt.  Plenty of times, I choose not to bag my purchases at Walmart, mostly because they are big items like cases of water or big bags of dog food.  Still, the fact that I choose not to bag my items should be seen as a security threat.  Yet, I have only once been stopped by the kindly elderly gentleman to see my receipt.  And that was because he stopped an African American family in front of me, who raised a ruckus over why he wasn't stopping me.  The fact is, whenever I have seen that man stopping a customer, it has always been a person of color.

Added to that discomfort is that fact that the National Anthem and the flag serve as powerful symbols of patriotism.  To disrespect the flag is to disrespect the soldiers who died selflessly protecting this nation.

That only raises the question, however, as to why our soldiers have gone to war and died protecting this nation.  Are we simply venerating national symbols because they happen to remind us of the geographic location in which we live?  Or is patriotism something more?

During debates like this, I like to think of my grandfather, who served in the First Army with General Patton, and who fought in the Battle of the Bulge.  Sure, he had a lot of stories about how he cut off Hitler's ear which were entertaining to me as a young boy.  But, as the long-time commander of the local American Legion post, who made speeches at the annual Memorial Day parade, he taught me a lot about patriotism and love for the United States.

When I think of patriotism, I return to a phrase that he repeated often in those speeches.  We took the time to march on Memorial Day because he were honoring those who gave their lives so that we may walk free.  The emphasis I took away was the last part of his phrase, that we may walk free.

What it comes down to is that I am immensely proud to be an American because of our freedom, because of our emphasis on the rule of law; in short because of the principles embodied in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.  Chief among the self-evident truths our founding fathers proclaimed was that all men are created equal.

To me, therefore, the debate over taking a knee during the National Anthem is important because it calls attention to those principles that make our nation great.  We believe in the right of the people to engage in peaceful protest and to call attention to those issues which are important to them.  In this case, the issue is inequality.  To dismiss the reason behind the protests, no matter how uncomfortable we may feel both over the form of the protest, fails to pay respect to the principles which the United States is supposed to embody.

William J. Kovatch, Jr.

When Is "Borrowing" a Tweet Wrong? Asking for a Friend

I have a friend who got caught "stealing" another person's tweet. It was funny tweet. Within hours it got thousands of retweets and likes. He was rather proud of that fact, and announced it on his Facebook page.  In fact, more than a week later, he is still getting people tagging him on Facebook celebrating the tens of thousands of likes and retweets.

 

The thing is, the next day, the originator of the tweet got very annoyed. So much so, that she somehow got a national periodical to publish an online article on my friend and his habit of "stealing" other peoples tweets. Her Twitter followers were incensed. They were using words like plagiarism. One went so far as to start an online shaming campaign, and even published a link to my friend's law firm's contact page.

Now my goal here is to shame anyone. I'm not mentioning any names. But I do have serious question. What is the online etiquette? Where is the line?

Look, we have all "stolen," or if you like him more innocuous word "borrowed," online content. I have seen photos and memes that I thought were funny, downloaded them, and posted them on my online accounts. This is how memes links to videos and funny pictures "go viral." In fact going viral, which seems to be the modern day equivalent of Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame, is a coveted occurrence. Quite frankly, when I "borrow content" I figure all of my friends know I'm just not clever enough to come up with my own Joe Biden memes.

Plus there's that whole tradition of hearing a joke or funny line, finding it amusing, and repeating it to others. My grandfather did it all the time. Surely those of you who follow my Facebook account did not think that my comment that Mike Trout's winning of the MVP seemed fishy was original, did you? (Thank you Joe Corrado for your online joke. My repeating it was meant as a tribute to your wit, please don't sue me.)

And Twitter is a fairly unique platform. You're limited to 140 characters. It forces you to either be terse, witty or sarcastic. It takes a lot of thought to come up with something funny to write in just 140 characters. (It's a perfect platform for Haikus, by the way.) Some people who come up with the pithy jokes are understandably possessive of their intellectual property.

In this case my friend uses his Twitter account to brand his law firm. The person he borrowed the tweet from was also a lawyer. She also uses her Twitter account to brand her law firm. It is understandable that she could get annoyed that her work was picked up and used by somebody else, who is now getting the credit for being funny.  It'slike a stand-up comic stealing another comic's lines.

Sure, Twitter has a retweet button and a retweet with quote option.  You could do that if you wanted to be courteous and give credit to the originator. But people steal funny tweets all the time.

So where is the line? And when does the simple repeating of somebody else's joke turn into full-blown plagiarism?

By: William J. Kovatch, Jr.