Let Her Sit!

I assume you are aware of the young school girl in Queensland who has caused a ruckus around the country with her simple act of refusing to stand for the national anthem during school assembly.

The Saturday Paper published a letter from her on 22nd September.  The Paper sits behind a paywall but you are allowed at least one free article per week – read her letter it is both enlightening on why she chose this action, and a little inspiring (click here to view).

If I was to write a letter to the editor of the Saturday Paper in response to the ruckus around this action , it would look something like this.

“Should a student be forced to stand for the national anthem?  Let’s go to the anthem itself and see if it can guide us.

‘Australian’s all let us rejoice’

Pretty clear there, we all have to join in, that’s what the ‘all’ bit means.  So, maybe standing is compulsory if you want to be a part of our society.

‘For we are young and free’

Hmm, that seems to contradict the first line. See, if we are free, that means we are free to do what we want, with a few caveats.  To be truly free means we are free to protest against ourselves, against our own society.

The first line encourages us all to stand us one,

The second line allows us not to.

What is most unfortunate about this whole episode, is that the focus of all the media is on the form of the protest, and the reaction, and not the underlying issue that triggered it.  Rather like commenting on her hair style, instead of the brain (and thinking) it covers.”

Had I sent that letter, being a little cryptic, it might not have been published – so I have placed it here and added a few points.

Firstly, and I know this is a minor point, but if you read her letter you will see that thankfully it was not inspired by a similar recent American action – and therefore she is not simply aping what has been done in America as we so typically do.  So, let’s not simply dismiss it as some of us might have, had it been a straight copy.

Let me lash myself to the … flagpole … right from the start and say – “let her sit”.

Of course it can be all too easy to take the side of the student against that of the school, forgetting how hard it can be for schools in general and teachers in particular to maintain some form of order in a world that could easily turn chaotic: have you ever had ten 10yr olds in your house, try having 30, or 300.  Let’s also remember, different rules apply in schools than what applies in the ‘outside world’.  Schools are not free societies.  But is the need to maintain order so strong that there can be no room for individual expression?  Or is it that, rather than threatening order, it offends our sensibilities?

For we are young and free.

Those that argue she should be forced to stand demand that she ‘show respect’.  What they are really demanding is agreement, not respect.  Her protest, to sit silently rather than stand, has been done in a respectful way.  They argue that she ‘obey the rules’, ignoring that in a democracy, the rules are not ordained from above, but developed and agreed by us, and part of the process of developing new rules is protesting against the current ones.  Arguing against protest is to argue that the rules are unalterable …. there are several schools of politics that would suggest this is the case, they being conservative or religious in nature.

For we are young and free.

Forcing her to stand requires coercion, and a free society is one where people are free from coercion.   The action of the school contradicts the very anthem they are defending.

Does it matter her reason for not standing? Are there justifiable, and non-justifiable reasons for not standing?  Only in your mind I think – in my mind – if there are reasons that are justifiable to yourself, that is enough.

What of her reasons for not standing – that’s what really matters – let me get to that another day.  For now, even if you don’t support her protest, at least support her right to protest.