David X Novak
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Kneeling at the Anthem

9/25/2017

 

With Colin Kaepernick I stand
For what is right, and, standing, kneel,
Against injustice out-of-hand,
And toward compassion make appeal.

Detractors counsel violence
Against those who will not stand down,
And add, with further incidence,
New ills where former ills were sown.

The Constitution has enshrined
Free speech against the government
In principle—but they will blind
Themselves, and set new precedent,

By legislating it’s “okay”
To drive a car into a crowd
Of those who protest, by the way
Asserting murder is “allowed.”

No man deserves a punishment
For free expression of his views— 
The conscience is no accident
Though hypocrites strive to confuse.

To tolerate intolerance
Destroys all free society— 
I stand with Colin, and advance
Through kneeling, the cause of the free.

The anthem is at best a song
Commemorative of deeds gone by— 
But I determine right and wrong
Per evidence before my eye.

Those men who kneel, and will not stand,
Though it subverts some specious claim
To “white authority,” expand
Our freedoms, as they test the same.


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