The past couple of weeks have been filled with hot takes on hot takes regarding The Star-Spangled Banner, but this might be one of the spiciest meatballs yet.
AL.com reports a public address announcer for a high school football game in Alabama suggested anyone who chose not to stand for the playing of the national anthem could go and take a few shots from some military personnel attending the game. Yep. That’s the message he relayed to those in attendance at a high school football game. If you want to sit or take a knee during the national anthem, then you can go be used for target practice by trained military.
Want more? The announcer is a pastor.
From the AL.com report;
“If you don’t want to stand for the national anthem, you can line up over there by the fence and let our military personnel take a few shots at you since they’re taking shots for you,” the announcer said at the game versus Houston County High School, according to Facebook poster Denise Crowley-Whitfield.
Crowley-Whitfield said the crowd went “crazy cheering” following the speech.
The announcer was identified as Pastor Allen Joyner, of Sweet Home Baptist Church in McKenzie, according to Joyner’s relatives and friends, who also posted to Facebook and praised the statement.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick is taking it upon himself to take a knee during the playing of the national anthem prior to NFL games to draw attention on how the African-American community is treated in the community by law enforcement officials and more. Others have joined in his movement, although Kaepernick has made it perfectly clear his intent is not to protest or disrespect the military. Still, others have drawn a tie between the flag and the military and chosen to stand by it, perhaps losing complete sight of the purpose of Kaepernick’s protest entirely.
Joyner’s comments were condemned by the superintendent, saying patriotism is encouraged but the threat of being shot has no place in the school environment. Joyner’s church has said the quote was misquoted and taken out of context by the original Facebook post sharing the story, so there appears to be some he-said-she-said going on here as well. Unless there is an audio of this quote, it is impossible to know for sure just what was said and how it was said. But you would think in this day and age where school shootings have been as rampant as they are, the announcer would have had a second thought about promoting a shooting on a high school campus. Then again, some people just don’t think.
[AL.com]
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