{"id":13,"date":"2016-10-25T18:58:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T18:58:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/campaign2016-youthvote\/?p=13"},"modified":"2016-11-04T19:29:47","modified_gmt":"2016-11-04T19:29:47","slug":"patriotism-protest-can-coexist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/campaign2016-youthvote\/2016\/10\/25\/patriotism-protest-can-coexist\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriotism and Protest: Can they Coexist?"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"'Protest
(Photo by David Fenton\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\u201cIf this country disgusts you so much, leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tomi Lahren, online political commentator, has taken any form of protest to mean disdain for America as a whole.<\/p>\n

Political and civil protests have been shaking up the American political climate more frequently in recent times. Police brutality, racism, and inequality have spurred national movements and coalitions to form in order to address and protest these issues and others. Some people opposed to these demonstrations have called into question the protesters\u2019 \u201cpatriotism\u201d and their loyalty to their nation.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Recently, a major public controversy has been Colin Kaepernick\u2019s demonstrations against standing for the national anthem in response to institutional racism in America In response to Colin Kaepernick\u2019s protesting, Lahren challenged his intent and his stance, and basically his right to protest overall: Lahren reprimanded Kaepernick\u2019s acts of protest, and claimed that he is showing lack of respect for the country by expressing himself in this way.<\/p>\n

Yet don\u2019t the freedoms of this country allow for freedom of opinion? Does patriotism mean blind acceptance of your country and all of its shortcomings without question, or does the American citizen have a right to try to fix the nation?<\/p>\n

Millennials, who are known to prioritize social justice, have had mixed responses to this particular controversy and the concept of patriotism as a whole.<\/p>\n

Growing up in \u201cwhite suburbia\u201d with a mom who \u201cis not white looking\u201d really affected how Rachel Langer views immigration. She remembers a specific time in her childhood when there was a crew of Latino men working fixing a roof of a nearby house. Langer\u2019s mom asked her to bring water to them on a hot day \u2013 she was too \u201cscared.\u201d Her mother, upset, made her come along while she gave the men water, later saying, \u201cThere is no excuse not to be kind. Imagine what these men go through.\u201d Langer never forgot that afternoon, saying it taught her compassion and helped fuel a drive to fight for immigration rights.<\/p>\n

Langer, a 22-year-old senior at NYU from Minnesota studying Social Work and Public Health, advocates and protests for immigration rights. She\u2019s participated in physical marches and protests and has also worked with immigration offices in Washington, D.C. to help immigrants. Langer believes that being American entitles one to try and mold the country into what you want and need.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I should stop fighting for what I think is important just for the sake of maintaining an illusion of perfect patriotism.\u201d She says the concept of patriotism calls for allegiance to your country that involves trying to continuously improve it. \u201cI feel like I can\u2019t call myself a patriot if I\u2019m not actively trying to make my country better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Langer, a white woman, disapproves of how \u201cwhite people always use patriotism to shut down any movements or hear anyone out,\u201d a common complaint in racially charged conflicts and an almost direct definition of Tomi Lahren\u2019s reaction to Kaepernick. \u201cProtests threaten what some see as pride for their nation,\u201d continues Langer, and so are shut down or discredited as soon as possible. She adds that her upbringing and her mom\u2019s inclination to be compassionate and teach sympathy has framed most of her political views, from immigration to racial discrimination and women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

But disregarding valid complaints about the current social and political state in the U.S. for the sake of patriotism is counterproductive and unhealthy for the nation. A large proportion of the population cannot be ignored or undermined when they choose to speak up about the inequality and hardships they experience on an institutional level simply because it threatens the comfort of those Americans who don\u2019t have the same experiences.<\/p>\n

For many, protests such as Kaepernick\u2019s are inherently insulting. Those people take the symbol of the flag or the national anthem represent America and the sacrifices of the American people. And by \u201cdisrespecting\u201d those symbols by not standing up, they believe he is forfeiting his patriotism and replacing it with disgust for the nation.<\/p>\n

Joseph Dreser, a 25-year-old accountant from Florida, is one of those people. Dreser grew up with very conservative, all-American parents in one of the more rural parts of South Florida, Southwest Ranches. He always adhered to his parents\u2019 political views growing up, but, unlike many millennials, his beliefs remained mostly the same even after he grew older and more informed on his own. He has always believed that symbols of Americanism should be protected at all costs. Protests like Kaepernick\u2019s and others (i.e. Black Lives Matter) \u201cleave a sour taste in [his] mouth.\u201d He disagrees with such public protesting and finds no value in the act, claiming that all these demonstrations do is bring attention to the people but do not actually result in anything concrete. Furthermore, he not only says that the protests don\u2019t yield intended results but that they also end up creating public contempt that harms the nation more than it helps whatever cause it is they fight for.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Lee Francis, a high school history teacher in North Carolina, was suspended for desecrating a flag in order to teach free speech. The teacher attempted to cut and burn the flag and then proceeded to step on it as a demonstration of free speech. He was making the point that freedom of speech given in the United States constitution allows for all Americans to address the country, the flag, and anything else they want in any way they choose to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it was unnecessary,\u201d said Dreser. He believes this demonstration was \u201cdefinitely unpatriotic\u201d and finds it deplorable that a teacher would use his position of influence to show something so negative to young, impressionable minds. \u201cHe\u2019s teaching them to be disrespectful to the country that gives them so much.<\/p>\n

Langer, on the other hand, isn\u2019t so harsh in judgment. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely not the way I would have chosen to teach students about free speech, but I can see where he\u2019s coming from. I don\u2019t think his intent is to be anti-America or disrespectful.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on September 24th<\/sup>, President Obama delivered a speech touching on the importance of the coexistence of patriotism and protest. \u201cThis is the place to understand how protest and love of country don\u2019t merely coexist but inform each other,\u201d said President Obama. \u201cIt is\u2026in the celebration of the entire American experience, where real patriotism lies,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s remarks and the concept of protest and patriotism not being at odds with each other and not being mutually exclusive could be revolutionary if it were widely accepted by the American population.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the President said really expressed what I\u2019ve always believed \u2013 patriotism isn\u2019t perfect and it isn\u2019t concrete. I don\u2019t think you can call yourself a patriot if you ignore the country\u2019s faults just to not question it and \u2018be a patriot\u2019\u201d said Langer, adding that she \u201csimply doesn\u2019t understand why the gut-reaction to protesting something in the US is to question the person\u2019s allegiance to their country in general.<\/p>\n

Dreser agreed that protest and patriotism could coexist \u2013 but only if the protest doesn\u2019t, in his opinion, \u201cinherently disrespect the country itself,\u201d (referencing Kaepernick.) \u201cYou cant love your country completely but still claim that\u2019s is so corrupt \u2013 you clearly don\u2019t love it that much.\u201d<\/p>\n

If protesting was inherently accepted and seen as a means to advance society and benefit the individuals within a nation, rather than a form of disrespect or ungratefulness for the freedoms of the United States, inequality, violence and other prevalent issues in today\u2019s societies could have foreseeable solutions or compromises that would prevent innocent people from suffering unnecessarily and further actual equality in the nation.<\/p>\n

In this day and age when people are kicked out of presidential rallies for protesting, the concept of coexistence between patriotism and protest seems almost unattainable. But if this were to occur and the population became widely accepting of social protests, it would bring forth an era of social change that the United States drastically needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  \u201cIf this country disgusts you so much, leave.\u201d Tomi Lahren, online political commentator, has taken any form of protest to mean disdain for America as a whole. Political and civil protests have been shaking up the American political climate more frequently in recent times. Police brutality, racism, and inequality have spurred national movements and … Continue reading “Patriotism and Protest: Can they Coexist?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPatriotism and Protest: Can they Coexist? - Campaign 2016: Youth Vote<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/projects.nyujournalism.org\/campaign2016-youthvote\/2016\/10\/25\/patriotism-protest-can-coexist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patriotism and Protest: Can they Coexist? - Campaign 2016: Youth Vote\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  \u201cIf this country disgusts you so much, leave.\u201d Tomi Lahren, online political commentator, has taken any form of protest to mean disdain for America as a whole. 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