Sophia Bank's Blog: Veterans Day—Stand for Our Flag and Country, or Take a Knee

Golden State Warrior Stephen Curry penned an open letter on The Players’ Tribune.

Here is an excerpt of his letter.

“One of the beliefs that I hold most dear is how proud I am to be an American — and how incredibly thankful I am for our troops,” Curry wrote. “I know how fortunate I am to live in this country, and to do what I do for a living, and to raise my daughters in peace and prosperity. But I also hear from plenty of people who don’t have it nearly as good as I do. Plenty of people who are genuinely struggling in this country. Especially our veterans.”

In the letter, he went on to explain what his protest meant, as well as what it meant across the sports world.

Essentially, he said that the protests were not meant to show disrespect toward our military, our flag, or our country.

Oh, really?

In the letter, Curry mentioned Colin Kaepernick by name (his first name).

Of course, Colin Kaepernick is the instigator of the take a knee movement, the same movement Curry and the Warriors, and the rest of the sports world attached their subsequent protests to.

What I find interesting is that Curry is not the first athletic, and the Warriors are not the first club, who has taken a knee or attached their protest to the original take a knee protest started by Kaepernick.

It stands to reason that any person or group who directly or indirectly attaches their protest to the take a knee protest, is protesting the exact, same thing.

On August 27, 2016, Kaepernick was interviewed as to why he had not stood for the national anthem. Here is his direct, unfiltered quote:

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

In this statement, Kaepernick not only disparaged our flag, he vilified our Country.

He did not vilify our government—he directly attacked our flag, our country, and our USA culture.

If you vilify our flag and country, you are fundamentally attacking everyone and anything that stands up for it, that includes the military.

It doesn’t matter whether a forgiving soldier or citizen forgives you for your actions, you still did them and we, as a culture, have a right to hold you accountable for your actions.

For Curry, or anyone else, to attach their name and reputation to a movement that attacks our Flag and Country, then turn around and say they are not disrespecting them, is not based on fact, and is an untruth.

If Curry is genuine in his statement, then I think he needs to explore the origin and meaning of the take a knee movement he has aligned himself with and make effort to reconcile his actions to substantiate his convictions.

At this point in our history—you either stand for, or kneel against, our country.