 Several years ago, Colin Kaepernick and several other professional football players took a knee during the playing of the National Anthem in protest of police brutality against black American citizens. Many of his critics felt that he was being disrespectful to the National Anthem and to the American flag, and in spite of his numerous attempts to explain to them that that was exactly the opposite of what he meant, his words fell on deaf ears and he suffered considerable personal losses. Another comment that many critics were making was that American soldiers had in the past and were still fighting wars in defense of the American flag and the National Anthem, and that was the comment that caught my ear because I felt that maybe they were actually focusing on the wrong thing because I believe that American soldiers that have fought in our fighting are not doing so to defend the flag and the Anthem, they're fighting to defend the principles and the values and the system of governance that those symbols represent. And in a sense, Mr. Kaepernick was showing great respect for those symbols and for the substance behind those symbols and that he was taking advantage of one of those primary principles that is the right to peaceful protest. So I felt the urge to respond to the critics, not to antagonize them, but to try to get them to see how it's really more important to focus on the substance, not the symbols. So I wrote a song at the time to do that, so I'm just going to perform the song, Acapella, with the hope that once we get it out into some public venue that maybe there'll be other musicians who might be inspired to musically expand this version and give it their own creative signature and then continue to transmit the message in hopes that we're maybe going to reach a point where the principles and values and system of governance that the American flag and the American National Anthem represent will be applicable to all Americans. And the song is entitled Down on My Knee. There are symbols of our nation to remind us we are free free to protest peacefully and free to disagree but for these symbols to have meaning and inspire us to our core they must not be just flags and songs they must stand for so much more Down on my knee I'm down on my knee the anthem for all glory doesn't seem to stand for me Down on my knee I'm down on my knee praying to all America please help to set us free How can it be an American for a man to want and deal to pose a grave injustice to show just how he feels and is our flag really stained at all if we don't rise upon our feet or more so by the senseless acts of killing black men in the streets Down on my knee I'm down on my knee the anthem for all glory doesn't seem to stand for me Down on my knee I'm down on my knee praying for all America please help to set us free There are men in grand high places building fires of discontent we must resist their lies of hate and diffuse their armaments then we can sound the call for civility that we must shout throughout the land for when we kneel for justice's sake then united we will stand Down on my knee I'm down on my knee the anthem for all glory doesn't seem to stand for me Down on my knee I'm down on my knee praying to all America please help to set us free Down on my knee I'm down on my knee the anthem for all glory doesn't seem to stand for me Down on my knee I'm down on my knee praying to all America please come and kneel