Protests help the United States progress.
In 1676, a full 100 years before more-celebrated events in Philadelphia, Nathaniel Bacon led a group of roughly 200 men into Jamestown to demand a promise be kept and election results be honored. The rebellious protest that emerged at that time became known as Bacon’s Rebellion, ending with the torching of Jamestown.
Eighty-seven years later in 1763, in the frontier of Pennsylvania, the Paxton Boys would mimic Bacon and threaten Philadelphia with similar chaos. These events can be understood as one group of citizens upset at those in power and feeling as if the government was not sensitive to the citizens’ needs.
These events, full of controversy and mystery, provide evidence of a key identifying marker of an American: If we don’t like something, we will protest it. These actions foreshadow the more famous protest in 1776 engulfing all 13 colonies in a civil war that we know as the American Revolution.
The willingness to openly protest, argue and march over issues is one of the core founding themes of this country. Of course, the English colonists were not the first people in history to protest, but in large measure, we were the first peasant stock to win against governing power. Almost all previous rebellions of “regular folk” were easily defeated, often with quite bloody results.
Not here. Even prior to Bacon, in 1636, Roger Williams had rebelled against the control of John Winthrop and led a group to leave the colony in protest, forming what would become Rhode Island. Tensions between poorer colonists in the northern part of the Carolina colony and the more wealthy leaders in Charles Town eventually led to the division of that colony in 1712.
Today, Americans protest a variety of issues, including the ideas of alt-right speaker Richard Spencer, whose appearance at the University of Florida Thursday was cut short by protesters, or the treatment of blacks by white lawenforcement officers, with protesters choosing not to stand during the national anthem. These protests are in keeping with our long tradition of rebelling. Those who believe that protesting during the national anthem is the wrong time to express an opinion are missing the point of protest. There is no right or wrong time to protest.
Our willingness to rebel and protest has come during times of peace and times of war — most often at what people consider to be “inappropriate moments.” For example, during World War I, a woman — Alice Paul — led scores of women to picket outside the White House to shame President Woodrow Wilson for his opposition to women’s suffrage. And during an economic depression, a populist — Jacob Coxey — led hundreds of citizens to march on Washington, D.C., in 1894.
However, there is another side, and those who currently are protesting seem equally blind to this point. Every protest is opposed. Protesting the protesters is a critical part of this core theme. In fact, today’s protesters should celebrate that there are many who are equally willing to protest the initial protest. That is as much a celebration of free speech and free expression as any of us should wish.
The long history of open opposition to rebellion in the United States is clear. The governor of Virginia, William Berkeley, in 1676 forcefully opposed Bacon, ultimately executing 23 rebels. In 1764, Benjamin Franklin rode with other leaders to meet the Paxton Boys, forestalling property damage. In the 1630s, John Winthrop never felt any need to apologize to Williams. In 1917, President Woodrow Wilson quickly had Alice Paul and her protesters arrested, to great applause by many, including many women who disagreed with Paul. President Grover Cleveland in 1894 had Jacob Coxey arrested for trespassing. President George Washington sent the army to stop the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, and those captured were sentenced to be hanged.
No side gets to claim some moral authority over the other, as if one side’s view is necessarily more right than the other side’s view. The human sees what she wants, and he follows or believes what he thinks best — and we often disagree over what that “best” is. If we can’t appreciate the counterprotesters’ acts of opposition, then we are as blind to their counterprotests as we claim they are to our reasons for kneeling.
The country’s long history of two-sided protests should give us some comfort. We’ve never fully agreed on much, and it has been through our protests that the United States has continued its march forward in progress.
That progress may not come as fast as some wish or dream, but we are still moving forward. I choose to stand for our national anthem — not because we are perfect, but because I believe in the hope of our continued progress as a nation. And I listen to those who protest because they may have some insight into our next best step forward.