Sedition by the yard
49ers 'unknown cheerleader' latest to spit on America

This morning, the BBC reported that an as-yet unidentified cheerleader for the San Francisco 49ers kneeled as the National Anthem was played, prior to a game against the Oakland Raiders. 

49ers’ management would be within their rights to take punitive action against the cheerleader. If they do not, well, draw your own conclusions. 

Earlier this year, in Ideas Afoot (Bromley Street Books) I addressed this faddish foulness and explained why free speech considerations are not relevant: 

A person once challenged my defending white supremacists' free speech rights, noting that I also criticize NFL players' National Anthem kneeling. The revolting and untrue implication was that I somehow sympathized with the content of supremacist speech.

Rather than marshalling exonerative evidence, I'll borrow a line from Christopher Hitchens: 'That which has been asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.'

The difference between one's own time and that of one's employer is important, here. Street demonstrators, pamphleteers, and online agitators are at liberty to spend personal time in pursuits of their choosing and to utter views, whether fine or foul.

But during an on-the-clock event, professional athletes [and cheerleaders] are bound by employers' standards. This hardly applies exclusively to football players; an office supply store clerk, for example, cannot reasonably claim First Amendment protection for work-stoppage and spontaneous cash register-situation renderings of Gilbert and Sullivan operas.

An employer can tell workers when to arrive for work, what apparel is appropriate in the workplace, what duties to perform, how to conduct themselves while on the job, and when their shift ends. Employees accept those temporary restrictions on some rights as a condition of desired employment. 

If legitimate work specifications are not to the liking of prospective hires, they can proceed elsewhere.

Anyone who's read American history knows our country has always had voices that rail against the patriotic, cultural, and nationalistic faiths that have for over 200 years united us as a people. 

Questioning can be productive. It's healthy to periodically reexamine assumptions and democratically agree on such timely adaptations as may be deemed necessary. But such must be done within the framework of unvarying Constitutional language and principles, and not grabbed at willy-nilly much as tykes might grab at a merry-go-round's shiny brass ring.

Kneeling during the National Anthem is not legitimate argument, any more than is poking your finger in an opponent's eye. Doing so constitutes ugly repudiation of American unity, law enforcement, and the countless men and women who've fought and died to ensure our safety and liberty.