Video of patrons standing with their hands over their hearts for “The Star-Spangled Banner” inside a California eatery called Rainbow Oaks sent progressives into a fury-filled frenzy online, with the person who posted a video of the stirringly patriotic scene calling it “the most dangerous situation I’ve ever been in.”
Far from being “dangerous,” all the footage shows is a number of the diners rising from their seats and standing with their hands over their hearts.
Agreeing with the hysteric and hyperbolic leftist, others said the moment would’ve been their “worst nightmare,” “that’s terrifying” and “this feels like a horror movie.” Commenters included hashtags like #godblessamerica, #getout, #illegal and #whitepeoplethings, implying that only white people are patriotic.
The owner of Rainbow Oaks, Jeanene Paulino, joined “Fox and Friends First” to hammer the absurdity of leftist outrage over playing the national anthem for the country they live in, saying, “I feel like, if we take a few minutes out of our day to be grateful for the men and women who have made the sacrifices so that we can stand up and say how we feel and she said how she felt. And I wish she realized that it’s because those men and women who made those sacrifices that she was able to do that.”
Continuing, Paulino ripped the complaints of progressives as being “privileged” and ungrateful to those who gave their lives for America, saying, “I think maybe they’re not focusing on gratitude. This particular TikToker had seen a local news post, so she probably did it for attention.”
She added that Rainbow Oaks has been playing the anthem for years and she won’t be backing down now, saying, “I come from a long line of patriots, so I was thrilled to keep the tradition going. No, we won’t be stopping.”
The anthem-protesting movement largely began with former NFL player Colin Kaepernick, who called the anthem “racist.” NBC published a glowing op-ed agreeing with him, insinuating that the anthem is racist because the man who wrote it was, like many other wealthy Southerners at the time, a slave-holder. In its words:
Colin Kaepernick’s decision to sit in protest of police brutality during “The Star-Spangled Banner” urges a closer look at our national anthem, its author and the realities of police brutality.
[…]Colin Kaepernick has chosen to use his power and influence to draw attention to a systemic issue that plagues Americans and to which there seems to be little compromise on the part of lawmakers and police unions: police brutality and extrajudicial murder, particularly of unarmed black women and men.
Although he wasn’t a football player, Francis Scott Key was no stranger to power and influence either. Key’s wealth and power were rooted in being a slaveholder, and as Washington D.C.’s District Attorney from 1833-1840 he used his office and its influence to vehemently defend slavery.
As the movement to abolish slavery grew in America its agenda and members were faced with numerous attacks, both legal and physical. There was blood in the streets.
In a high-profile case that drew national attention, Key prosecuted a doctor who lived in Georgetown for possessing abolitionist pamphlets. In the case of U.S. v. Reuben Crandall, Key sought to have the defendant hanged, asserting the property rights of those who owned Africans, and the quality of life having a second class of citizens the institution afforded them held more weight than the free speech rights of those arguing to abolish slavery. Key was not alone, he was in league with pro-slavery Congressmen who in 1836 passed a series of “gag rules” to quash all anti-slavery petitions and prevent them from being read or discussed.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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