Controversy struck last week when Kaepernick took a seat, not benched this time, but by choice…during the national anthem. Sitting during the anthem was an action that stirred the emotions of many Americans who disagreed with it.

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” said Kaepernick, according to The NFL. Kaepernick exercising his First Amendment right caused unrest. However, despite the clear divide, he was justified in his rights.

Kaepernick’s opinion is backed up by his view of minorities and their treatment as outsiders in this country. Distrust and hostility among minorities and law enforcement has been an on-going tension in the United States for ages, but has been highlighted recently once again.

“I feel like what he did was right,” said Anthony Conard, freshman at Madison College. “Cops killing blacks, blacks killing cops, and an athlete sits down. If that’s what we’re worried about, then there is a serious problem,” he continued. “He’s speaking for a lot of unheard voices.”

Quickly after Kaepernick gave his reasons, many Americans took to social media to express they felt the act was disrespectful to veterans, who sometimes didn’t have the ability to ‘stand’ for the country they protected.

But what many failed to realize was that protecting the country means protecting its land, its citizens, and their rights, which is why many veterans took to Twitter and the media to support Kaepernick in his right to freedom of speech. Marcus Newsome, a veteran who served in the U.S. army from 2000-2011, said minority veterans were treated ‘like crap’ in the past and are now being used as a vehicle for ignorant agendas, according to an interview with The Huffington Post.

As tension rose, the past was used for the present by both sides, some feeling people didn’t respect the lives lost fighting for the country and others wondering if they were fighting for them. When the third stanza of “The Star Spangled Banner” was revealed, the opinions of many Americans, including veterans, who hadn’t known of the hidden stanza, changed after the disclosure.

“No refuge could save the hireling and slave / From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave.”

The meaning of the stanza is controversial, but the penman, Francis Scott Key, who wrote the anthem during the war of 1812, was in fact a slave owner, also making the distinction between hirelings and slaves. We know that the flag and the anthem represent the United States. If we take a look at the history of each, it must be taken in entirety, both the good and the bad.