Was it disrespectful or acts of courage when Colin Kaepernick and several NFL players “took a knee” while the national anthem was sung? It is the latter. Why? Their silent and powerfully visible act drew attention to the hypocrisy embodied within said anthem, namely “… O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

What hypocrisy? In 1814, when Francis Scott Key penned the stirring lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” slavery had been operating in this country for almost 200 years. In reality, as a slave owner himself, Key knew “the land of the free” was inhabited by hundreds of thousands of slaves and indentured servants, who were certainly not “free.” The hypocrisy, therefore, was the juxtaposition between his words and the verifiable truth.

Since Key’s hypocrisy, progress has been made (namely, the Emancipation Proclamation, 13th and 14th Amendments, etc.) toward achieving equal rights and protections under the law, but the journey to “bravely” advocate for the eradication of systemic racism, and to provide all Americans with equality without exceptions, is still ongoing.

Until we all are truly free, the last line of our national anthem should read: “O’er the land of the nearly, almost, supposedly free and the home of the yet to be brave.”

John M. Mishler

Harpswell