Super Bowl Sunday! Yes, once again in keeping with our finest traditions, this past Sunday night our nation gathered around the television to watch football, judge commercials and eat nachos. Or at least that’s how we played it at our house.
Brunswick resident Heather D. Martin wants to know what’s on your mind; email her at heather@heatherdmartin.com.
Obviously, as with every little thing in all our lives this year, it was different. No friends, no family, no party – just those of us who live here full time. The Pats weren’t playing, but Brady was. No trend-making, catch-phrase-sparking Budweiser ads. Lots of very strange stuff about this year.
But the difference I really noticed was the pre-game.
Did you watch it? Setting aside the very strange “ghost of Lombardi” segment, there was a distinct theme to the pre-game coverage. I saw images of Black Lives Matter marches, handmade signs calling out violence and injustice, a beautiful performance of “Lift Every Voice” and a powerful poem by Amanda Gorman honoring local heroes.
The entire production was a sonnet to righting the wrongs of history and ending the wrongs of the present. It shouldn’t be daring to state openly that equality is the goal, and justice should be the rule, but that pre-game felt like a radical thing. A radically beautiful thing.
I mean, it was only five short years ago that Colin Kaepernick boldly and bravely took a knee during the national anthem. Take that in for a moment: It was in 2016, essentially yesterday, that a man quietly and self-composedly kneeling on one knee during the national anthem made the world gasp and the NFL have kittens.
There was all sorts of analysis over the history and symbolism of the gesture and rebukes for the man behind it. Kaepernick was scolded, reprimanded and vilified. His work was picked apart and put down, often regardless of what the numbers and stats revealed. In that moment and the quiet, determined repetitions that followed, Kaepernick effectively ended his career. But he started a movement.
“Taking a knee” has become a widely understood and oft-used form of peaceful but iron-clad demand for justice. It has been used in rallies and protests across the nation, across the globe. And on Sunday, we saw it incorporated into the stylized programming of the very institution that attempted to eliminate its existence.
Now, I am not naive enough to think the NFL has had an awakening or change of heart. No. They are not crusaders, and they are decidedly late to the conversation.
But, what I think did happen is even more inspiring. I think that so many of you, so many of everyone out there, stood so firmly in unison against the waves of hate and racial bias – even in the face of some pretty big moments – that the calculating market forces realized they needed to ally themselves with the message.
That gives me hope.
For so long, our ears have been ringing from the angry shouts of rage around us. It felt at times as if that’s all that was out there. In this moment, it feels to me that is not the case.
We cannot relax, or think the work is done. Far from it. But. We can drop our shoulders a notch, take a deep breath, and realize perhaps we moved the play farther down the field than we had realized.
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