Toni Smith has the right idea

Michael Jordan hasn't done it. Tiger Woods hasn't done it. Brett Farve, Barry Bonds, Andre Agassi, Mia Ham and the Williams sisters all haven't done it either. In fact, with the exception of the Dallas Mavericks' Steve Nash, who wore an anti-war T-shirt to his interview session at all-star weekend, no high profile athlete has spoken out or taken a stand against the potential war in Iraq.

However, on a small liberal arts campus in Purchase, NY, Toni Smith, a senior basketball player at Manhattenville College, is doing it. And hopefully, professional athletes will follow the lead of this brave 21-year-old.

All season Smith has turned 90 degrees away from the flag as the National Anthem is played. Though she had been doing it all season, the gesture took on national significance when it was reported in the Feb. 12 edition of Newsday.

Since then, newspapers and regular citizens have been weighing in on the great Toni Smith debate. Much of what is being said about Smith is negative. Some say that she is acting as an individual rather than as a teammate. Others say that the athletic arena is not a forum for political protest. And still others say that she is disrespecting her country.

Dan Patrick, the noted ESPN Sportcenter anchor who hosts his own radio show and pens his own column went so far as to say, "It's one thing to voice an opinion, but it's completely different to turn your back -- literally, not figuratively. In turning her back on the American flag, Smith is doing more than making her point_she is rejecting everything the flag and this country represent."

Whoa there Dan, settle down boy. Smith is doing no such thing. Rather she is embodying everything that is good about this country. This is not Iraq, or Cuba, or China or North Korea -- Smith is allowed to disagree with the government and she is allowed to do so publicly. The First Amendment of the Bill of Rights gives her that right. Smith is rejecting George W. and objecting to war with Iraq. What is so anti-American about that?

We should support a war just because Bush and his gun-toting band of merry men say we should? Have we been so brainwashed that when a woman chooses to make a statement about an unjust war and an ignorant administration, we immediately label her anti-American?

She disagrees with Bush's policies and she is opposed to war in Iraq and instead of standing silently and conforming to societal pressure and government propaganda, Smith has chosen to make a silent stand for what she believes in. She is not hurting anyone, she is not demanding that others follow her lead, and her team is not suffering, as demonstrated by its 17-10 record.

And Smith is not, and should not be, alone in her anti-Bush, anti-war stance.

According to The New York Times ("A Stalwart of Certainty: Bush Undeterred on Iraq," March 2), "The political and logistical obstacles to realizing President Bush's goal of ousting Saddam Hussein within weeks seem to keep mounting... And yet Mr. Bush not only sounds more certain than ever that he is about to lead the United States into war -- he also talks almost as if Mr. [Saddam] Hussein has already been deposed."

George W. is doing this despite the fact that France, Germany, Russia, Turkey and the Arab League do not support him. Neither do the millions of people who assembled in the US and abroad on Feb. 15 for the world wide day of protest against war in Iraq.

When the United States decided to overthrow Britain in 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote a little something called The Declaration of Independence. In that document, it is said that "...Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government."

The United States is a member of an international body called the United Nations, which has not given its consent for war. George W. is not deriving his "just Powers from the Consent of the Governed," rather he is hell bent on war and is ignoring the international community which opposes it. So following this logic, George W. should be ostracized or removed from the international community.

By facing away from the flag during the National Anthem, Smith is expressing what so many Americans are too afraid or too ignorant to express, namely anti-war sentiments. Athletes and public figures should be leading the way in speaking out against a war that George W. clearly intends to fight, because their voices are far more influential than the voices of the Toni Smiths of the world.

While Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and so many other athletes are afraid to come out and make political statements for fear of destroying their public personas and costing them millions in endorsements, Toni Smith like Muhammad Ali, during the Vietnam War, is not. Ali went so far as to go to jail rather than enlist in the army.

According to Jerry Kiley, a Vietnam veteran, who was ejected from the a game on Feb. 23 after coming onto the court and holding an American flag in Smith's face, "She disgraced herself and she disgraced the flag."

If anybody is disgracing the flag it is George W. He is putting America on shaky ground within the international community and believes that war is "plan A" rather than a last resort.

On the other hand, Smith is a breath of fresh air -- a thoughtful person who is willing to stand up for what she believes in -- critics be damned.

Because she chooses not to face the flag does not mean she does not love her country, or that she does not respect the millions of Americans who have died fighting for the United States.

"I am aware that this is a time of fear for many Americans, and the media has done a fine job of maintaining that fear and riling up people's emotions," Smith said in a statement released to the press. "However, amidst this fear people have lost sight of the fact that Bush's plan for 'maintaining our safety' will cause innocent people, women and children, mothers and babies, to die overseas. Furthermore, going to war will likely provoke more violence in this country."

It sure seems like Smith has been doing some thinking and what was initially a personal statement has now taken on national significance. We can only hope, that some of those professional athletes, who are too PR savvy to formulate opinions of their own, grow some marbles and follow the lead of a brave 21-year-old woman.