I SOLEMNLY SWEAR THAT I WILL SUPPORT AND DEFEND...

 As the "new normal" NFL season is upon us, my Facebook friends have been posting a lot lately (again) on both side of the argument about standing or not standing for the national anthem. I get it. I mean I get both sides. 

I didn't back in 2016 when Colin Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem. I was among the scoffers saying how un-American and disrespectful it was to the flag, to those who served in the military, to our country. I even looked up the US Code 36 § 301 which states:

(A) individuals in uniform should give the military salute at the first note of the anthem and maintain that position until the last note;

(B) members of the Armed Forces and veterans who are present but not in uniform may render the military salute in the manner provided for individuals in uniform; and

(C) all other persons present should face the flag and stand at attention with their right hand over the heart, and men not in uniform, if applicable, should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart; and

(2) when the flag is not displayed, all present should face toward the music and act in the same manner they would if the flag were displayed. ~

As a retired Naval officer, I have done all of the above many, many times, and I always stand a little taller and a little prouder as the strains of the anthem play.

And then on 25 May 2020, George Floyd was murdered by four Milwaukee policemen. The visual of that day and that act was horrific. Bystanders, including an off-duty paramedic, asked several times if they could assist, if the police would check his pulse, if they would let him up, and they did not. And he died.

I had seen the reports of other deaths of black men and women at the hands of police: 

- the shooting of Ahmad Arbury while he was out for a jog in his neighborhood by two seemingly racist vigilantes who were not arrested until federal authorities got involved, because they were friends with the local authorities; 

- the shooting of Botham Jean, eating ice cream in his own apartment, by an off-duty policeman; 

- the shooting of Breonna Taylor, in her own apartment, by authorities implementing a no-knock warrant in what was learned to be the wrong apartment, and their subsequent lying on the official report.

And then there were more:

- Rayshard Brooks, challenged in a drive-through and popped for DUI, who struggled in handcuffs and got shot in the back as he ran;

- Daniel Prude, a mentally ill man, suffocated by police with a hood as he struggled;

- Elijah McClain, walking down the street in his own neighborhood and stopped by police, he panicked and tried to tell police he could not stand being touched (a credible mental issue) when they gave him an overdose of a tranquilizer - he died a few days later;

- Rodney Hess, right here in West TN, who suffered from bipolar disorder and became disoriented and tried to ask the police for help - they said he presented a threat and shot him;

- And there are many, many others.

I am sure the police have their sides of these stories too. Having been a federal law enforcement agent (NCIS) for four years, I think the truth is like a beach ball: if we're all standing around the beach ball we each describe it as a different color. But a study examining 5,494 police-related deaths in the U.S. between 2013 and 2017, by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that black Americans are 3.23 times more likely than white Americans to be killed by police. That should give us pause, especially when compared with other statistics. 

The National Registry of Exonerations at the Newark Center for Science and Society (University of California, Irvine) reported in a March 2017 paper that though "African Americans are only 13% of the American population... a majority of innocent defendants [are] wrongfully convicted of crimes and later exonerated. They constitute 47% of the 1,900 exonerations listed in the National Registry of Exonerations (as of October 2016), and the great majority of more than 1,800 additional innocent defendants who were framed and convicted of crimes in 15 large-scale police scandals and later cleared in “group exonerations.”" The fact that they are exonerated is positive, of course. The fact that they are wrongly accused and convicted is tragic. And how many innocent men and women have not been exonerated?

The past few months have been a time of study. My last job on active duty in the Navy was that of Director of Navy Equal Opportunity. I learned back then and I can reiterate it now, that the more I learn, the more I need to learn, especially about prejudice and racism. 

I have been blessed over the years with friends who do not look like me. They are black and brown, Asian and Hispanic, African and Native American, white, European, conservative, liberal, moderate, gay and straight, Christian, Muslim, Wiccan, pagan, Jewish... well, you get the idea. I have been able to talk with some of those friends, especially the black and brown ones and ask about their experiences and I so appreciate their candor and love them for being so honest and real with me. 

I have also read two amazing books: "Black Boy" by Richard Wright written in 1946 about his yearnings to be a writer and his struggles in the Jim Crow South. It's an excellent book and he was a descriptive writer who takes you there. The other book was published in 2020, "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" by Isabel Wilkerson. Wilkerson compares our caste system to that of India and Nazi Germany. Harsh in places but eye-opening, it turns a mirror on our society in a mixture of commentary and scholarly material that is readable and yet documented. 

Both of these books, and my conversations with my friends have helped to shape my thinking in recent months. I have become more empathetic. I will never understand what it is like to be a black man or woman in this country. That is not who I am. My great-great grandfathers on both sides of my family were slave owners. I would like to think they were kind but I don't know that. And even if they were kind, I think it is shameful and wrong to own another human. I also believe we have left out a huge swath of history from most of our text books, 400+ years of slave history. I'm not talking about shaming and laying blame, though there is blame to be had in places. But just giving voice and learning about the past of a segment of our population. 

We have not done that yet. And the police killing of black men and women has not been adequately addressed. Both of those things need to happen. 

Back in September 1980, when I was sworn into the Navy and each time I was promoted, I took the following oath: 

    "I, Leanne Braddock, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;  that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

I've found it interesting that the oath doesn't say anything about defending the country, but rather the constitution, the document that outlines the very ideas on which our country is based. I took an oath for 24 years to defend a collection of ideas contained in a document that was first signed on September 17, 1787, and amended with the Bill of Rights in 1789. One of those freedoms we enjoy is freedom of speech. 

I served in the military and I took an oath to support and defend the constitution and its freedoms, including free speech. If the NFL players see kneeling as a forum for getting their word out, then I see I have defended their right to that free speech too. 

Do I agree with it? Not really, but I think I'm beginning to understand it a little better. I will continue to stand for the anthem, but I will also defend their right to kneel. 

Happy hiking.

Leanne