Stand Up: Free Speech, Trump and Professional Athletes

By Kody Fairfield

The President, in this now imfaous attacks on athletes and whole “NFL must Stand for the Anthem” debacle, missed an immense opportunity to lead. Instead of offering to listen and create dialogue, he created division.

If I were advising the President, in light of Stephen Curry’s criticisms, I would have advised him to continue to extend the customary invite to the Warriors, and offer a sit-down with Curry. A sit-down which would show that the President truly wants to change hearts and minds, and listen to others who see the world differently, experience things differently, and, right or wrong, feel voiceless (just as many of the President’s supporters did prior to his election). This conversation wouldn’t have meant that the President would have to give ground, he wouldn’t have had to drop a situation (kneeling) which he evidently sees as disrespectful, and he wouldn’t even have to come out of the conversation with a changed opinion, but it would have shown some humanity.

People have stopped talking with each other and started dictating to each other. Prior to Trump’s election, many Americans felt voiceless, left behind by the elite Democrats and Republicans who act in their own self-interest, and now Trump is risking the same ending to his “drain the swamp story.” Jefferson understood “mob rule” and pure democracy when he explained it as would lead to the 51% taking the rights away from the 49%. This is precisely why the US has always been a Democratic REPUBLIC. But under President Trump, many people celebrate when he uses his status to pressure others to behave the ways he and his supporters want them to. We must not pretend that having power allows us to dictate the lives of others. We are all individuals, and our nation’s ideals are what bind us.

The rights of the individual, especially the ones described in the first amendment, are exactly what our flag represents. Without the protections to disagree with our government (peacefully), our flag loses its purpose as a beacon of freedom in the world. Without the freedom to express our conscience, I don’t know that I would view “Old Glory” the same. The reason I revere OUR flag and OUR nation is because it represents light in darkness, growth in a world of complacency, and hope for the future. I may not agree with every protest, as I don’t agree with the kneeling situation occurring now, but it is naive to think that coercive attitudes toward “free speech” won’t eventually be turned around onto a new victim at a different time in history.

Nobody, and nothing, is perfect, and my country has its scars and blemishes- some deeper than others. But I will stand up for the right others to defend their own conscience, because one day, I would hope that they would do the same for me. I would never demand it, but I would hope that the notion that we even can, is worth standing and saluting the flag, and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in defending those ideals.

Kody Fairfield is the former Editor-in-chief of The Libertarian Republic

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