Should an Athletes Protest Offend Us?
<p>The big question here is, <strong>should we be offended when an athlete displays a form of non-violent protest during the playing of our national anthem</strong>?</p>
<p>Think back to the 1968 Summer Olympics when American bronze and gold medal winners John Carlos and Tommy Smith raised their fists in the air while the Star Spangled Banner played over Mexico City. Their cause; human rights.</p>
<p>Flash forward almost fifty years, and numerous professional football players begin kneeling during the National Anthem for the entire 2016 season. NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick was the first. Many followed suit. Per an interview with online magazine <em>Paper, </em>Kaepernick’s protest was in response to the 2015 shooting of Mario Woods. He did stress later that it was not only this incident, but an alarming number of fatal shootings of African Americans by police that fueled his protest. In many of these cases, the police are not held accountable and it is even more rare that they are prosecuted.</p>
<p>The why behind his protest is crystal clear. But should his action of nonviolent protest offend us?</p>
<p><strong>The answer is no.</strong> Allow me to explain.</p>
<p>We need to remember one fundamental concept that brought us the democratic form of government that prevails today. Per our founding fathers, in their justification for rejecting the tyrannical rule of King George III, governments are to be <em>instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. </em>Seeing as we won our independence, we are now sovereign, meaning our Government derives its powers from us<strong> </strong>because we allow them to govern us. We created this government, therefor they work for US! Not the other way around.</p>
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