America has a long history of kneeling.
People kneel to pray. People take a knee in sports to signal injury. People fall to their knees in grief. People bend low to tie the shoelaces of their children or elderly loved ones. People bend the knee to show respect or humility, to honor or to serve.
Never in our history did solemnly taking a knee mean hating the military or the nation itself. It only acquired that meaning when a Black man did it during a sports event, and you were told, immediately, that this is what kneeling means.
You decided that was true. You repeated it angrily, loudly, over and over until it became accepted wisdom. Even though it wasn’t true. Not then. Not now.
In this moment, your fellow citizens — the children and the elderly, all races and ethnicities, from all walks of life, civilians and police alike — are kneeling.
When they kneel, it feels solemn. They recognize the injury and adopt a posture where hurt and anger meet humility and dignity. Some of them are praying and some are grieving and, by showing up, they’re serving.
Maybe now you can finally see it. How it was never about the flag. It was never about the soldiers. It was always about showing up, wounded.
Until there is no wound to heal.
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Previously published on “Equality Includes You”, a Medium publication.
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Photo credit: istockphoto.com