Here is something I find sad: Throughout living my normal life today, I have overheard conversations about this exact same topic five times. One for it, the majority against. Throwing aside the side that people were on, because that doesn't matter in this post, this is consuming many people's lives, including mine. The people who are against it, like me, are truly saddened and angered by this. Anthem protests are NOT the best way to get the message across. No, I cannot think of a better way at the moment, but I can assure there are better ways that are less controversial. I get everything will be controversial, but some ways more than others.
This seems more like a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature and purpose of protesting than something bad on the part of the protesters.
Protests aren't supposed to be comfortable. They're supposed to be controversial. They're supposed to make you talk, and think, and make decisions. The more you talk and the more you think, the more your opinion will evolve.
For some people, that evolution will mean more acceptance - maybe not outright acceptance, but more than they had before. And that's an improvement.
For some people, they will not gain greater acceptance. That's either because the protest is flawed or the reasons behind it are wrong, or because they're just heard-hearted and won't budge. There are many reasons minds & hearts won't change.
But this constant complaint about disrespect or uncomfortable feelings... that's a non-starter. You're never going to get that, not from an effective protest.
