In his editorial for NPR's Code Switch, Keith Woods takes on a casual tone. Woods describes how his father would feel he had witnessed Colin Kaepernick's refusal to stand during the singing of the national anthem. Woods' voice is highly articulate.
The personalities of both the author and his father are highly evident in the piece. "I still get anxious every time I see someone hold the American flag too low... these things still mean something to me, but mostly because they meant everything to him," Woods reflects. This is meant to show the contrast between the two men, and how this causes Woods' opinion to differ from that of his father. "I can't condemn him. I won't," he says regarding Kaepernick's choice not to stand. The in-depth description of his father's unyielding expression of patriotism appeals to pathos and delivers his message nicely: an individual’s respect to the American flag and what it stands for cannot be measured simply by his/her decision to stand or otherwise during the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem. Both the author's tone and diction are quite informal throughout the piece. Woods refers to his father as "Daddy" as if he were having a casual conversation with someone who had known his father. He says his father, had he been alive to witness his own funeral, would have "geeked out" at the sight of the military honor guard's contact with his casket, and that he would have marveled at the precision of the soldiers who honored him with a folded flag. Woods' diction does not take any seriousness from his tone, but it does add a sense of comfort and ease. Keith Woods' purpose in My Father Stood For The Anthem, For The Same Reason That Colin Kaepernick Sits, is to argue that the American flag, the Star Spangled Banner, and Pledge of Allegiance mean different things to each individual. He does not necessarily agree with his father, who implies that it is somehow the duty or responsibility of every person to stand in the presence of the flag. Woods argues that the meaning of and the expression of the meaning of the flag can take on different forms between people. "Who am I to decide what it should mean to Colin Kaepernick? Who could possibly know what it meant to the people Daddy chided in the old Tulane Stadium?" he asks his audience, the American people. These questions are intended to be "food for thought" and invoke in his audience a more open minded approach to standing or not standing during the national anthem. Woods ends his piece with the final two lines of the Star Spangled Banner: O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?, tying his ties his message together with one final argument: all people are free to participate in the national anthem differently; each individual's expression is based on their personal relationship with the flag. For his father the privilege to stand was something to take pride in. For Keith Woods, standing during the pledge is a way to honor his father and preserve his legacy.
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Michayla Cherichelis a North Cobb Warrior with interests in politics, political science, and journalism. Archives
February 2018
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