On a recent solo hike, I had some thoughts on a variety of topics, beginning with a list of yard chores and ending on America’s present state of political debate. Some of my thoughts were directed at liberals, which I shared in my previous column. Now for the rest of the story…
Dear (Southern) Conservatives, if you are feeling smug and vindicated by my words… don’t be. You are doing the same thing the liberals are doing. You are claiming the sole right to decide the meaning of your star & bars, regardless of how other folks feel about it. OK, fine, but when it comes to some NFL players kneeling during the national anthem, you insist on imposing your view of their actions. They claim their kneeling is about protesting racism – it’s not intended as disrespect to our nation, our troops, our school teachers, our nurses, etc. It’s about racism in police shootings. In other words, dear Conservatives, you claim the right to wear your Dixie flag because it doesn’t mean hate to you, but you won’t give the NFL athletes the same right to define what their own actions mean.
So, dear readers, both liberal and conservative, it seems to me that there are two reasonable, logically consistent approaches to this issue and one unreasonable, hypocritical approach. The two reasonable options are: first, don’t criticize either group; simply take them at their word for what their actions mean; or, second, criticize both groups because their personal ideas about what they are doing ignores the obvious fact that their behavior is offensive to much of the American public. The thing that these two approaches have in common is that they judge both the good ol’ boys in South and the NFL’s protesters by the same rule. Consistency, thou art a jewel, a rare jewel.
The inconsistent, hypocritical view is this: criticize just one group (that is, the one you disagree with) but defend the other group (the ones you agree with). This is the most popular approach, and yet it is unfair and inconsistent because it judges these two groups by two different standards. For your favorite group, you let them determine what their actions means; for the other group, you let the opponents and critics decide.
So, for those of you who defend a Southerner’s right to wear the Confederate battle flag, fine, but to be fair, you must also defend the right of someone to kneel during the national anthem. Likewise, for those of you who defend a person’s right to kneel during the national anthem, fine, but you must also defend the person who wear a “Heritage, not Hate” T shirt. (For purposes of full disclosure, I wouldn’t defend either one. I think both are showing disrespect to our flag and to basic civility. I wouldn’t wear a Nazi swastika and then claim “German Heritage, not Hate” because I don’t want to be associated with the evil that most folks associate with that symbol.)
It’s time for both sides to step back, take a deep breath, and think about how their actions are perceived by others. Do you really want to continue to do something that is perceived by many others as racist or unpatriotic? Do you seriously believe that advances your cause? A guy once said, “Love your neighbor as yourself” and “treat others as you want them to treat you.” If those values make sense to you, then your goal should be peace and reconciliation, and you should do your best not to offend your opponents unnecessarily, even though you have the right to.
So, those are the kinds of things I think about when I’m hiking alone. My next project will be North Korea. Since the future of the world is at stake, I’ll get to it soon, as soon as the weather is nice and I don’t have yardwork to do.
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