These original patriots risked death and pledged their sacred honor to those truths, for which they are properly honored, even in spite of their serious failures. Now as then, allegiance to those Founding principles is what defines a patriotic American, not whether he or she stands or kneels while an anthem about the flag is performed.

The anthem and the flag are symbols, interpreted differently by people; in fact, their meaning can change for the same people in different moments (as for the African American who sang the anthem at an NFL game Sunday and kneeled for its last notes).

A person can salute the American flag with tears of affection in his eyes; if he deprives others of life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, he is still a bad American.

These men are bad Americans:

Jeff Christensen / Reuters

Holding the Stars and Stripes aloft changes nothing.

And though I love the Stars and Stripes, regarding it as a symbol of what’s best about the Founding and the ongoing process of perfecting it, and respecting all those who’ve fought honorably beneath it on behalf of liberty, I regard anyone for whom it carries a different meaning as a good American, no matter how different or wrongheaded their perception, if they champion life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That is the test.

Now consider the athletes kneeling in protest during the national anthem. Anyone paying attention knows their core grievance: the killing of black Americans by police officers. There are people, like Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute, who will tell you that neither the fact that American police officers kill many more people than their analogues in other countries, nor the fact that African Americans are killed in disproportion to their numbers, is proof that many killings are unjust.

For our purposes, we needn’t even decide that controversy on its merits.

It is enough to know that athletes like Colin Kaepernick and LeBron James disagree; that they earnestly believe many innocents are killed by police officers; that scores of their fellow athletes concur; that millions have earnestly reached the same conclusion.

Most people understand that much. They may be averse to kneeling black athletes, believing them to be disrespecting the flag or the troops (though neither is their intention); but they grant that the athletes really do think black people are being unjustly killed, and that they are kneeling in hopes that laws around policing are reformed.

Consider what that implies. The athletes, kneeling together in public protest of what they believe to be unjust killings, are pledging their honor and risking their fortunes in political protest; their grievance is that the government is failing to secure the rights of Americans; in particular, it is failing to protect their lives and liberty.