‘Sound and fury, signifying nothing”: That’s where the National Anthem-knee wars stand after President Trump kicked them into high gear.
Every side has plenty of fair and important points to make, but the noise and confusion is sure to drown them out. Nor is there any resolution to the whole affair that will actually resolve anything that matters.
The NFL settled on its let-’em-protest policy long before Trump weighed in, and it’s not going to change now. The president voiced the take of many football fans, but he also guaranteed a whole lot more kneeling.
But it also muddles an already-blurry message. At this point, it’s not even clear what any given kneeler is trying to say: Is it a statement about racism in policing, racism in general, a rebuke to Trump, solidarity with other players?
The Steelers may have come up with the best response by staying off the field for the Anthem altogether, though the teams where all players embraced are also sending pretty clear “we won’t be divided” message.
Our sense is that passions were fading before Trump jumped in. Some players were making their statement, but symbolic consciousness-raising is rather a dead end: What, after all, has to change to justify standing back up?
But outrage over the protest is also pointless, even if you think it is unpatriotic to use the National Anthem this way: Screaming about it only encourages it, as Trump is proving.
In any case, the nation has far bigger fish to fry. As another guy from Queens noted over the weekend, this debate is “irrelevant or at least secondary to a conversation like what’s going on with Puerto Rico right now, where people are suffering, people may be dying. You want to use the power of the White House? Use the power of the White House to help Americans in need, now.”
We’re with Gov. Cuomo on this one.