The idea of taking a knee during the US National Anthem is prominent in the news lately. One person kneeling says they do it for one reason, another for another reason. There is no clear, relevant grievance any more for it. They are doing it to protest anything, it seems. This lack of clear grievance compounded with the fact that people aren’t “using their words” to talk is why I can’t get behind it.

Funny, we teach toddlers to talk it out and constantly remind them to use their words, but we don’t remind adults of this same thing.

Here’s what I can get behind:

I would like to see people doing something other than virtue signalling. Taking a knee doesn’t do anything to solve the actual problem.

Come out to the Section 8 housing. Come out to the ghetto. Talk to people to find out what keeps us stressed and up at night, drives us to drugs and/or tears. Then use your knowledge and expertise that you trained in to actually do something to fix the problems, not just take a knee from the safety of your world.

I’ve been instructing our students and staff to do what we’ve done all along: learn and use our skills to make it better.

As you talk to people living in dreadful situations, make a list of stresses. Housing? Childcare? Education? There are many problems to deal with.

Then, delve really deep into all aspects of just one of those stressful things for us. All aspects with no judgements. That means what the person you’re talking to is dealing with along with politics, society, business, and any other things that relate to the problem. That means you must learn what each side struggles with in the aspect of solving the problems without bias or tribalism. Then, you must do something with your training that solves the problems.

Want an example?

Here’s a topic to start with: Housing. Help us find actually affordable housing that isn’t falling apart or full of disease. What goes into maintaining a building? Why are they not being maintained up to a good standard? Keep asking more questions like that.

It goes beyond greed of the landlords, but also includes apathy and laziness of us residents. Not all of us have time or inclination to care. We work several jobs to keep food on the table ─ even with government assistance. And some of us turn to drugs to help “ease the pain” of it all, which takes more or a toll.

It’s always more nuanced than this virtue signalling makes it.

What people shouldn’t do is virtue signal for any of this biased and uneducated.

As you can see, the problems are always bigger than one thing. By virtue signalling from the safety of a different world, people aren’t doing anything to make it better. I’d dare to say they make it worse by bringing attention to it which makes those of us that suffer more impatient because we SEE that they KNOW, but they aren’t doing anything useful. It’s a frustrating state to see that more people know of the suffering, but are still not doing much to improve circumstances.

That’s why you won’t see any of Insanitek’s social media feeds with anyone taking a knee that isn’t helping someone off the ground. We’re not doing the easy things. We’re doing it the hard way.

But the hard way? It makes more of a difference than the 30 second a selfie and a hashtag takes.

It’s also far more respectable and more admirable to those of us living in these “oppressive” conditions to see you doing something tangible to help solve the problems.