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Title: ‘We were just praying for everyone’: Browns players explain decision to kneel during ‘National Anthem’
Source:
Fox 8 Cleveland
URL Source: http://fox8.com/2017/08/22/we-were- ... -kneel-during-national-anthem/
Published: Sep 2, 2017
Author: Staff
Post Date: 2017-09-02 08:53:04 by IbJensen
Keywords: None
Views: 12404
Comments: 49
(A group of Cleveland Browns players kneel in a circle in protest during the national anthem prior to a preseason game against the New York Giants at FirstEnergy Stadium on August 21, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) CLEVELAND, Ohio — Colin Kaepernick still is without an NFL team, but that hasn’t discouraged players for following his controversial lead and opting not to stand during the national anthem. Twelve members of the Cleveland Browns took a knee Monday night and shared a moment of prayer before their home preseason game against the New York Giants. Other teammates huddled around the group in support. It was the largest group of NFL players not to stand during the national anthem since Kaepernick started his protest a year ago, saying he didn’t want to “show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.” Kaepernick is biracial. “There’s a lot of social and racial injustices going on in the world right now,” said Browns safety Jabrill Peppers, one of the players who knelt. “We were just praying for everyone. Everyone thinks that when you reach a certain level, a certain status in life, certain things you’re unaffected by, but that’s not the truth. We’re all human at the end of the day, and we just have to come together at times like these. It was just us being together, a bunch of teammates praying for the world.” ‘Time for me to join my brothers’ The players who knelt were running backs Duke Johnson Jr. and Terrence Magee, safeties Peppers and Calvin Pryor, cornerback Jamar Taylor, tight end Seth DeValve, wide receivers Kenny Britt and Ricardo Louis, linebackers Christian Kirksey and Jamie Collins, and running backs Isaiah Crowell and Brandon Wilds. Crowell and Wilds were not in uniform. Standing nearby in solidarity were punter Britton Colquitt, cornerback Jason McCourty, quarterback DeShone Kizer, defensive tackle Trevon Coley and offensive tackle Shon Coleman. “Obviously, this is a sensitive subject in our country right now,” Kizer said. “Quite frankly — it is kind of sad on my part — I don’t really know the different teams and what they are doing, but I did see an opportunity with my guys to support them on an awesome venture out there when they decided that they are going to pray in a time where this country is kind of all over the place in a sense of human rights and the racial movements. I decided it was a time for me to join my brothers who decide to take a knee and support them while they were praying.” Kirksey, who led the prayer group, said the group felt like Monday night was the right time to do it. The game was broadcast on national television. “With everything you do, you have to have respect,” Kirksey said. “We did it in a way that resembled prayer. We were just praying over the country and praying over things going on. We did it as respectfully as possible, and we respect everything that happened with things in the military. We respect all of that. We just felt it was the right time for us to do this and say a prayer for this country.” First white NFL player to kneel DeValve is believed to be the first white NFL player to kneel during the anthem. After the game, DeValve, whose wife is African-American, said he didn’t realize he was the first white player to do so. “I, myself, will be raising children who don’t look like me,” DeValve said. “I want to do my part, as well, to do everything I can to raise them in a better environment (than) we have right now. I wanted to take that opportunity with my teammates to pray for our country and also to draw attention to the fact that we have work to do. That’s why I did what I did.” Last year, Kaepernick, then with the San Francisco 49ers, became a lightning rod when he refused to stand during the national anthem. The quarterback’s decision to sit — then, later, to kneel — drew fierce criticism but sparked a national movement. Other athletes, from elementary schools to professional leagues, followed his lead. Kaepernick, a free agent, remains unsigned. Poster Comment: The NFL is a farce! I don't watch their games at all. It's the most UN-diversified sport there is. I don't care to watch a gaggle of Negro millionaires wrestle around in the mud or AstroTurf. I'd rather watch a bullfight on You Tube from Madrid that's a year old. 
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Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 27.
#2. To: IbJensen (#0)
Enough with the praying and the singing of a national anthem. Can't they just play their game? Does it all have to be another tired exercise in public religion and cheap patriotism? Those players aren't Christians or patriots. They're just a bunch of fast-living overpaid athletes. And the crowds are generally on their second or third beer by the time they pray or kneel or listen to another bad version of the Star-Spangled Banner. Which, no matter how many times they sing it, never includes the second verse, the third verse, or the fourth verse. If people care so damned much about the anthem, then why don't any of these uber-patriots even know the words to all 4 verses of it, eh?
There are indeed four verses. I always liked the second one best. The third one is pretty muddy, bloody and stark, so that one often gets left out even when they print it in books. The hymnal at Church has the anthem in it, but with only the first, second and fourth versus - blood washing out of foul footsteps pollution is a little much. It's a good anthem. Hard to sing (because it is famously based on a drinking song about a Greek hero who strangled on his own voice trying to sing an impossible song, so the POINT of the original tune was actually that it's really hard to sing), but the tune is stirring. There are a few national anthems in the world that have really great music. Probably the most influential of all has been the Marseillaise, because it's got's a kick-ass tempo and is great for marching. After the Russians had their revolution a Russian version of the Marseillaise was their national anthem for a few years. During their revolution, before they won the government, the anthem of the Chinese Communists was the Chinese Marseillaise. There's a Latin American Socialist Revolutionary Marseillaise. That particular tune stirs people up, and the bloody revolutionary history behind it seems to move from mind to revolutionary mind around the world. The British anthem "God Save the Queen", that tune, was likewise used by many of the other royal houses of Europe back in the day as their anthem. The anthem of Tsarist Russia was "God Save the Tsar", to the same tune, at least during part of its history. The anthem of Switzerland is still the same tune as God Save the Queen. And of course our own alternate patriotic song "My Country Tis of Thee" is likewise set to that tune. The German anthem has a nice tune. Over the course of history they keep changing the words (can't think why), but the tune remains the same and is nice. Israel's anthem, "Hatikvah", really sounds Jewish. Can't explain that, but if you hear it you'll know what I mean. I'll give honorable mentions to the Dutch, Spanish and Danish anthems too. Our anthem is pretty good. Of course I'm biased. I'm sure that sound of our anthem sets people's teeth on edge elsewhere, which is not a terrible thing (they're jealous). So, if I put together a triplet of anthems, I'd put in mine - just because - and then I'd pick the two most "effective" anthems at moving people around the world - and those would be the Marseillaise and the Imperial March from Star Wars.
I like the part of the Marseillaise where they're singing about watering the furrows of their fields with the blood of their enemies. People tend to forget that France was, a few centuries ago, the superpower of Europe. No one really dared challenge her in her prime. And that anthem recalls that era of stalwart French arms and bloodthirsty patriotism. Otherwise, it's a bit overblown. I kind of like the ennui of the Canadian anthem. And the frivolity of the Aussies' unofficial anthem, Waltzing Mathilda (also a haunting theme song for the late Fifties anti-nuke movie On The Beach).
#30. To: Tooconservative (#27)
The Marseillaise is a "thing". During the Wars of the Revolution it was the "firewater" that seemed to drive exceptional feats of bravery. Also, because the beat is faster than a traditional march, it had the effect of making any army that marched to it "Zouave march", which is a sort of fast broken step, not in unison, that increased speed over ground by about 20%. This "firewater of the French Revolution" actually moved the French army around faster than its stately opponents, which had strategic effects over the course of the war. The French moved troops faster, in a sort of orderly disorder that disgusted the Prussian school of drillmasters, but that had a nasty habit of being able to get ahead of retreating troops to take bridges and forts before they could get back to them. Napoleon recognized the particularly incendiary nature of the song, and suppressed it for several years during his imperial rule, then revived it at the end when he needed to raise armies fast for the final defense of France. The song has a particular emotional strain to it and a rhythm that stir the blood, and not just French blood. Example from the other side of the world, with Mao in it as a bonus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54hau6wZpEE Tchaikovsky used it to great effect in the 1812 overture, where it has the same effect as the Darth Vader theme/Imperial March in Star Wars. You can tell what is happening by the advance and falling off of the Marseillaise in the Overture, with the cannons, and then the church bells pealing all over Russia: the Evil Empire has been defeated! The anthem is not simply the anthem of superpower France, but it comes from desperate era of revolutionary France, when all of the other great nations of Europe, literally all of them all declared war on the French Republic all at once. Just like the Star Spangled Banner was written in a spirit of great anxiety, by a man watching a battle unfold, not knowing which side would win, the Marseillaise was written at the moment of the war of decision: would France prevail, or would Europe's combined arms drive the French people down under a restoration of the old order. It wasn't an "after the fact" song, but a very "We're about to be crushed - rise now!" song, when the issue was very much in doubt. "Come, you children of the fatherland, the day of glory has arrived! Against us tyranny has raised the bloody banner! (repeat) Do you hear in the countrside their fierce soldiers' roar? They come, even to our arms, cutting the throats of your sons and your wives. To arms, citizens! Form your battalions! Forward march! Forward march! That their impure blood shall overflow our furrows!"
There really are two Canadian anthems: the English one, which is rather dull and sort of a pointless promise to "guard" a country that hasn't been under threat since Napoleon invaded Russia. And then there is the French one (which is the original), which is really a cultural anthem of French Canadian history and pride - none of which ships over into the English words written to the tune. English version: O Canada, our home and native land, true patriot love in all thy sons command. With glowing hearts we see thee rise, the True North strong and free From far and wide, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free! O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. French version (in English): Oh Canada, land of our ancestors, your brow is crowned with glorious garlands because your arm knows how to carry the sword, and it knows how to carry the Cross. Your history is an epic of the most brilliant exploits. And your valor, steeped in faith, will protect our homes and our rights - Will protect our homes and our rights.
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O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation.
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
#26. To: Tooconservative (#2)
(Edited)
#27. To: Vicomte13 (#26)
Replies to Comment # 27.
#33. To: Tooconservative (#27)
(Edited)
I kind of like the ennui of the Canadian anthem.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 27.
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