Soccer star Megan Rapinoe was denied a second opportunity to kneel during the national anthem on Wednesday, September 7th, 2016. The Washington Spirit moved the playing of the national anthem up. When the anthem was playing, Rapinoe and her teammates were still in the locker room preparing for the game.
The Washington Spirit said, “We decided to play the anthem in our stadium ahead of schedule rather than subject our fans and friends to the disrespect we feel such an act would represent” (http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/rapinoe-stymied-bid-national-anthem-protest-41936614, 9-8-16).
Rapinoe was denied her right to peacefully protest, because the management of the Spirit deemed it disrespectful. A takeaway that can be inferred by the reaction to Rapinoe and Kaepernick kneeling during the anthem; is athletes have a right to protest and say what they want until what they say is on the opposite end of the spectrum from upper management and the fans.
As fans we cannot asked athletes to display personality , and then when they do display some personality, we do everything we can to silence them.
Bill Lynch the owner of the Washington Spirit is a veteran and his veteran status was used as the main reason to move the playing of the national anthem up.
The Washington Spirit said, “To willingly allow anyone to hijack this tradition that means so much to millions of Americans and so many of our own fans for any cause would effectively be just as disrespectful as doing it ourselves” (http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/rapinoe-stymied-bid-national-anthem-protest-41936614, 9-8-16).
What the Spirit unwillingly did was bring even more national attention on Rapinoe and giving her a chance to further show her support for Kaepernick. By doing this they have put a bigger spotlight on Rapinoe and why she is standing, thus enlightening more people to the causes she stands behind. That flag and the anthem represent a lot of things to different people. The sooner we realize that Americans, specifically athletes are not hive minded, the sooner we can move to finding solutions to the problems Kaepernick and Rapinoe are raising, and not trying to silence them.
