Stand Tall.

It was tears, tears for being free, and tears for love, tears for the country.

She knows what freedom is like and she knows what it is like to lose your freedom.

The anthem stirred up memories. Those flashes from the past could have been from two years ago, when she was forced to strip naked for the lewd entertainment of Russian soldiers, or maybe all the way back to a middle school bathroom, where the girl viewed as different was treated as if she did not belong. But the anthem played, and Griner listened and cried because the notes now mean so much. It was her song.

In the Washington Post article Brittney Griner is seen full of emotion as they win the Gold.

On the medal stand, Brittney Griner’s tears said everything

This is Griner’s country, too. Her reaction after winning another Olympic gold medal showed that.

Column by Candace Buckner

August 11, 2024

“The Star-Spangled Banner” was climbing to its conclusion, and Brittney Griner couldn’t stop the tears. Because her right hand was over her heart and she held a Paris Olympics poster in a cardboard box in her left, Griner had no way to wipe her reddened, wet eyes. She swallowed hard, as if to calm and reset herself. And try as she might, blinking them away didn’t work, either.

An instrumental version of the national anthem played following the U.S. women’s basketball team’s gold medal win Sunday, and Griner cried. Her tears framed her round cheeks and streamed down her face. She was the only one on the medal stand so moved. Then again, she might have been the only woman on the podium who had to play through PTSD at these Olympics. And she probably was the only person in the arena who had served time in a Russian penal colony.

[…]

Griner can now be proud of a country that hasn’t always loved people like her back. When anyone from a marginalized group feels accepted, that they’re worth being loved and protected and fought for, that’s when the tears flow.

Mein Kampf was Hitler’s guidebook to the Third Reich, Project 2025 is Trump guidebook to authoritarianism.

“Just — just really happy, honestly. Really happy,” Griner said. “My emotions are all over the place. I was on the podium, the flag was going up, and as soon as the anthem started, I got tears — tears coming down my face. It means so much to me, my family. I didn’t think I would be here, like I’ve said before. And to be here winning gold for my country, representing for my country …”

Vote for freedom for all this November.