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San Francisco Giants coach Gabe Kapler won’t do it anymore stood with his team for the national anthem until he “feels better about the direction of our country” after Tuesday’s shooting at a Texas school that killed 19 students and two teachers.
Kapler spoke to reporters before Friday Game against the Cincinnati Reds to explain his decision not to take part in the national anthem, a decision he first revealed in a lengthy blog post earlier in the day.
“I have no plans to come out for the anthem in the future until I feel better about the direction of our country,” he told reporters. “That will be the step. I don’t expect it to necessarily move the needle. It’s just something I feel strong enough to take that step for.”
Kapler write a detailed letter posted on his lifestyle website expressing regret for standing for the anthem during Wednesday’s game against the New York Mets, given the tragic events of the previous day.
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“I wish I hadn’t let my discomfort compromise my integrity,” Kapler said. “I wish I could have demonstrated what I learned from my father, that if you are dissatisfied with your country, you can protest it. The home of the brave should encourage this.
In the Home of the Brave? post, Kapler said his father told him to “stand up for the pledge of allegiance if I believed my country represented its people well, or to protest and sit down if it didn’t.” . I’m wearing it I don’t think it represents us well right now.”
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Kapler targeted the “police officers who had guns and get nearly 40% of the city’s funding” and lawmakers whose response to the shooting was, “We needed locked doors and armed teachers.”
“Before our games, I often notice that the promise of our national anthem is not kept,” added Kapler. “We stand in honor of a country where we elect representatives to serve us to carefully consider and enact laws that protect the interests of all people in this country and to guide this country toward the vision of the ‘City Shining On to ‘advance the hill’.’
“But instead, we mindlessly combine our moment of silence and sadness with equally mindless celebration for a country that refuses to embrace the concept of controlling the sale of arms used almost exclusively for the mass murder of people. We have our moment (over and over again), and then we move on without demanding real change from the people we empower.”
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Kapler had previously protested the national anthem in 2020as he joined several of his players in taking a knee to protest racial injustice and police brutality.
“I wanted them to know that I was not happy with the way our country has dealt with police brutality and I told them I want to amplify their voices and I also want the voice of the black community and the marginalized communities,” Kapler said at the time.