The Validation of Opinion

I am an opinionated individual as I feel many of us are. We live in a world of unlimited, accessible information and yet it’s opinion that tends to trump fact. I’m not saying that opinions are negated by facts, but I am saying that in today’s society, it feels as though opinions are too readily formed without due diligence in garnering knowledge. That being said, I’d like to talk about something that bothers me.

Too often do I find myself in discussions and debates about social incidents. Since I’ve written a little bit about it, I’ll use the NFL protests as the example from which many of my observations stem.

When quarterback Colin Kaepernick began his peaceful protest of sitting during the National Anthem before games, I had a similar kneejerk reaction as many Americans had. I was upset. I felt slighted against in some way, that he was disgracing the country that I not only served, but identified as mine. The United States is my home and by identifying myself as a citizen of this country, I viewed his actions as unacceptable and as a transgression against the fraternity to which I felt I belonged. Frankly, I was mad at the man.

But as I stated before, we have a wealth of knowledge most readily available at our fingertips in this digital age. What would compel a fellow citizen of this country, a teammate of America if you will, to disrespect something we all value? Well, in this age it’s easy to seek the answers to such queries, and so I did.

I read about Kap and listened to interviews about his motives for sitting. I immediately saw the validity of his argument but still, something didn’t sit well with me in his chosen action. Little did I know that a veteran and member of the NFL fraternity felt the same way and was reaching out to Mr. Kaepernick.

Nate Boyer is a former Green Beret and former NFL long snapper. He felt disrespected as well but rather than take to social media like many of us do to spew his feelings on the subject, he reached out to the source directly in hopes of gaining a better understanding. He too felt that Colin Kaepernick, an American citizen, is entitled to his own opinions. Boyer was not happy about the action chosen to express this opinion and said that “it would sit better” with him, and possibly other veterans if Kap were to adopt taking a knee over sitting. Kap agreed and began kneeling during the National Anthem over sitting. This interaction says volumes for both men, who fundamentally disagreed but were able to come together, talk about their opinions and rather than expecting the other side to change outright found a ground on which they both could metaphorically stand. It wasn’t about proving one was right and the other wrong, but that they were both entitled to their own American views.

As we all know, Kap’s movement slowly caught on a little and even after he was no longer a member of the NFL, taking a knee modestly continued in his absence, a small flame atop a match stick burning just brightly enough to know that it wouldn’t burn out until the wooden fuel it consumed was exhausted.

Then came the can of proverbial gasoline. Rather than attempting to understand or address the cause behind the protest, emotion driven opinion was offered to a sea of likeminded, uncaring of circumstance followers who did nothing but exacerbate the situation. Rather than a controlled flame we now were looking at a raging fire as a nation. This small protest that flickered ever so slightly on the national stage was now burning everywhere. From high schools to across the NFL, players, spectators, more citizens were taking a knee.

I’ve written about this and my personal thoughts towards the whole thing, but I’d like to get to my point. In engaging in several conversations on this issue over various mediums, I was confronted time and again by fellow Americans who staked claim of their opinions mattering more than my own, particularly veterans or people with family members who serve/served. Now, I served nine years in the United States Air Force. I’m proud of my service and look back at the times fondly that I spent with some of the finest men and women our country has to offer. No one will ever be able to take that experience from me as it’s become a part of who I am. That being said, I do not feel that my military service is something that validates my opinion on this subject more than any other American. It’s ok if you feel that taking a knee is wrong, but your service record does not make you right, it only provides you with a different point of view. Personally, this protest and its execution has made me all the more proud for my time in service as that is precisely the right for which I defended.

When discussing matters like the inner-workings of the military I will put greater stock in a veterans opinion than a civilian who has never served. But when it comes to any opinion outside of that, I’m sorry but your opinion does NOT trump another’s. It’s a level playing field and your entitlement you think you’re owed due to your service has ended the moment you step onto that field. I rarely bring up my service unless it’s pertinent to the discussion at hand and when it’s used against me and my opinions when it’s decidedly not pertinent, I say “thank you for your service” and keep my own record to myself. Why? Because in no way will I ever consider my own opinion as carrying more weight than my fellow American brothers and sisters.

We all fight battles and we all essentially want the same thing. It’s this notion of entitlement and validation that separates us and keeps us from addressing solutions to the heart of problems that plague us. Instead we’re left with this idea that it will all be fixed because someone says so. The only people capable of fixing us as a people are not sitting on a hill or within the walls of a fancy house, the proverbial “they” is “US”. It matter greatly how we tackle obstacles in our paths, but we are the solution to our own problems.