Disclaimer: I\u2019m not American, other than the year or so I spent in North America at the start of last decade, I can\u2019t claim to have had any experience of living in the USA. I didn\u2019t grow up reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every day nor my childhood didn\u2019t contain that specific red, white and blue flag and rhetoric about freedom. <\/em><\/p>\n The opinions (and that is all they are, opinions) within this article are mine alone, and even though I don\u2019t expect everyone to agree, I do hope you at least consider what I\u2019m about to say.<\/em><\/p>\n For many, not all, hearing their national anthem can be a stirring thing. The song, usually sung in view of a flag, is never just a collection of words but something intended to celebrate the land it represents. Often there is, at the bare minimum, an allusion to conflict, to war and lives lost in pursuit of freedom. Whether it be the calling to arms of France\u2019s La Marseillaise or Argentines crying, \u201c\u00a1Libertad! \u00a1Libertad! \u00a1Libertad!\u201d during the Himno Nacional Argentino, a national anthem usually speaks to the collective consciousness of a nation. Anthems are something citizens can rally around, to hark in respect of their homes as they remember the fallen and strife that their forebearers toiled through.<\/p>\n Although patriotism exists in every country around the world, no land seems to do it quite like the United States of America. The archetypal image of an America is a loud and proud one that gets in your face, unironically hollering about freedom. No country in the awkwardly so-called Free World does patriotism quite like the US.<\/p>\n From the near-indoctrination of the daily pledge to the muddling and mixing of what is and isn\u2019t American, culminating in so much symbolism in the flag. The stars and stripes coming to stand for a physical representation of what it is to be American, yet something that is perceived by so many of those who stand for it as something militaristic. For those who see themselves as the great liberators, those who closes ears and eyes to the oppression all around them as they open mouths to speak the gospel of the land of the free<\/em>.<\/p>\n Not standing for the flag; the image is one that is violently anarchistic, one that besmirches the preconceptions about the USA, one that spits on the graves of those who\u2019ve died in the name of protecting American freedoms. Those who\u2019ve wantonly given their lives in far flung lands, fighting political and money-grabbing wars, all whilst bearing the stars and stripes on their uniforms.<\/p>\n America is a young nation but one with a history plagued with conflict, both at home as well as way, it is therefore, not at all surprising that that specific American patriotism is so prevalent, or that it is indeed, so militaristic. But through it all, the flag isn\u2019t a beacon for the military, yet that is how it is seen by many.<\/p>\n As Marcus Thompson explained during Meg Linehan\u2019s Full Time podcast earlier in the month, \u201cSports have made the anthem and the flag synonymous, almost exclusively, to military. [] The flag is just: honour the troops.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n A reminder on today’s holiday that kneeling during the anthem as a protest has absolutely nothing to do with the military.@ThompsonScribe<\/a> joined me this week on Full Time with Meg Linehan. Listen on Apple: https:\/\/t.co\/NMms5DeIC9<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/AMmXk6Fhi5<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Meg Linehan ? (@itsmeglinehan) July 4, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nPatriotism<\/h3>\n
The military<\/h3>\n
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