Before Sunday's Amherst-Williams basketball game, I never thought all that much about the fact, that at the beginning of each game, we stand up, face the flag and listen to the national anthem. To be honest, during that star-spangled minute, my thoughts usually wander-I'm much more likely to be thinking about what I'll do later that night than I am to reflect on the values and history that the American flag represents and honors. I could probably learn something from Div. III Manhattanville College senior women's basketball player Toni Smith.

For the most part, Manhattanville College and Toni Smith are very un-extraordinary. Smith, a sociology major, grew up in Manhattan, and has had a solid but far from wildly successful collegiate basketball career at the 1,400-student Manhattanville campus in Purchase, a tiny Westchester County suburb 20 miles north of New York City. But unlike me, and I suspect, unlike many Americans, Smith thought a lot about the representations inherent in the American flag, not to mention the act of saluting one. That's caused her to do something out of the ordinary. And that, in turn, has caused a national media frenzy.

Since the Manhattanville Valiants' season began, Smith has turned away from the flag and lowered her head during the playing of the national anthem, in silent protest of the potential war with Iraq. In a Manhattanville press statement, Smith wrote that it was becoming clear to her that "the government's priorities are not on bettering the quality of life for all of its people, but rather on expanding its own power," and she continued, "I can no longer, in good conscience, salute the flag." People began noticing on Feb. 11, when hundreds of Merchant Marine Academy cadets cajoled Smith from the stands during an away game at Kings Point. Now, every Manhattanville game is a circus-television cameras and photographers ring the sidelines at Manhattanville's Kennedy Gymnasium hoping for a shot of Smith with her back turned, and it seems that the sellout crowds are there at least as much to express their support or dissent for Smith's actions as they are to watch the 17-9 Valiants play into the postseason of, it's been noted, their best campaign in recent memory. In one set of bleachers, a group of spectators waves signs promoting Smith's right to free speech. On the other side of the stands, another group of signs rails against Smith and her protest.

Maybe it's because I've never stood out and I've always saluted the flag without a second thought, but I've never been called unpatriotic. But people around the country are horrified at Smith. They call her unpatriotic and un-American. The issue at stake isn't whether or not Smith has the right to turn away from the flag: she does, under the Bill of Rights. The debate is whether or not Smith should exercise that right. American soldiers died defending Smith's right to turn away from the flag. So, Smith's dissenters argue, shouldn't she respect the flag and its connotations for that very reason? U.S.A. Today quoted a man rallying against Smith at her last game as saying, "She's not turning her back on the government or on President Bush. She's turning her back on thousands of Americans who died for the freedoms she enjoys."

That may be true, but that only makes her callous towards those who died in battle. It doesn't make her unpatriotic or un-American. Smith exercises the rights that those who died fought to preserve. We all exercise those rights-freedom of religion, freedom of the press-every day. Smith's situation is more explosive because it's not as cut and dry. The flag has an emotional attachment to Americans-it symbolizes the ideals, struggles and liberties that make America a country that thrives on individual idealistic freedoms, a country that holds an exciting potential for true greatness. The flag represents a country whose realities actually have a decent chance of living up to its fantasies, a rare find. Americans have the right to turn away from the flag; Smith's dissenters say that in good conscience that means they shouldn't.

Smith's dissenters are wrong, and they've done something dangerous. They've blurred the line between sentimentality and patriotism. They've also confused honor and respect for the dead with an appreciation for them and their ideals. Smith may not be a very sentimental person, and she may not be very respectful of soldiers' sacrifices. But she is definitely a patriot, and I have no doubt that she appreciates and treasures the ideals the soldiers fought and died for, the ideals that form the backbone of America. She's proven that much.

"Being patriotic cannot simply be an empty slogan," Smith wrote to end her statement. "Patriotism can be shown in many ways, but those who choose to do so by saluting the flag should recognize that the American flag stands for individuality and freedom. Therefore, any true patriot must acknowledge and respect my right to be different."

When the Zumbyes sang the national anthem before our men's team took on Williams on Sunday, I stood up and faced the flag, along with everyone else I could see. But for the first time, I thought about what that meant, and I wondered if anyone else in LeFrak also thought about it. I made a conscious choice to stand up and salute the flag. And this time, it felt different; I felt as if I was actually honoring and realizing my gratitude to the American flag and the country it represents, instead of going through the motions of a routine I'd participated in countless times before. Through her actions in choosing to not salute the flag, Toni Smith helped me realize the force of my choice to salute the flag and the privilege inherent in my having that choice. I respect her fortitude and her courage in the face of such unexpected opposition, and I applaud her patriotism.

Becca Binder is a member of the class of 2002.