The basketball player who didn't salute the flag... To stand silently would not have been true to herself.  She didn’t spit on the flag and she didn’t burn it, but she chose to turn her back on it.  You’d think she had I like this piece by D. Hyde.  Hope you like it, too.  There are dozens of anti-Toni Smith opinion pieces out there… n     S. McCrea ===============  HYDE: Student protest gives lesson in first amendment Published February 28, 2003 When it comes to the passive protest of Toni Smith, a college basketball player who turns her back on the American flag during the national anthem, she remains the only one passive. Opponents have taunted her. A Vietnam veteran has stormed the court to confront her. Hundreds of Merchant Marine cadets have chanted for her to, "Leave our country!" A Texas columnist called her, "a confused adolescent brat," and a national sports-radio voice labeled her, "Little Miss Baghdad." Smith's school, tiny Manhattanville College in Purchase, N.Y., has been flooded with "thousands and thousands of e-mails and phone calls," many of them supportive of her, a school spokesperson said on Thursday. But a USA Today poll of more than 20,000 readers shows only 4 percent would join Smith if they were a teammate and 57 percent would counter her protest by, "wearing a red, white and blue bandana." Yet there was Manhattanville's captain again Thursday night, standing alone in Manhattanville's 300-seat gym and showing us what incredible things kids can learn in school these days. Of course, even more incredible is what Smith can teach us. There she was again, turning her back on the flag, reminding everyone of the First Amendment. There she was again, sparking a scene of protest and counter-protest that shows how a free society works. And there she was again, reminding us about the power of one. One person. One voice. One idea. One nation where it still matters. This is the big lesson for all of us. In a cynical time, before a distrusting public, the question always raised in times of elections, corruptions and now even war is, "What difference can one person make?" More and more, we're a country defined by numbers. Tragedies are ranked in the media by the number of deaths. Positions are staked out by politicians according to the number of supporters. A TV show's worthiness is judged by the number of viewers. Run the numbers. Check the numbers. What do the numbers say? That's how our country seems to work. But here comes one common person from one small school in one tiny gym armed with neither demographics, ratings nor support. And she is making a stand. A good stand. And she has made herself heard -- without even talking until recently. For the first few months of this season, Smith had no public comment on her protest and none was needed. Few people noticed. Fewer seemed to care. That Manhattanville is 25 miles from New York City, the world's media capital and site of Ground Zero, only underscores how little attention was paid to her. But when a Purchase, N.Y., newspaper ran the story, it got picked up amid the swirl of war, patriotism, Sept. 11, Iraq and a wave of anti-U.S. protests. Tens of thousands of protesters came out in countries like Germany and France. One did in Purchase, N.Y. Smith is hardly a star, averaging 5.2 points a game. But this bigger point has made her a name. Remarkably, after not filling up its 300-seat gym, Manhattanville began selling out games a few weeks ago. Some fans began turning their back when Smith shot free throws. Some began chanting, "U! S! A!" -- just as others did, "We love Toni!" A week ago, Smith broke her silence by writing a 250-word statement that began, "For some time now, the inequities that are embedded in the American system have bothered me. As they are becoming progressively worse, and it is clear 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, I cannot in good conscience salute the flag." On Tuesday, with a couple dozen photographers, national TV cameramen and reporters at her game, she relented to an interview. "I never meant this to be a public statement," she told The New York Times. "I did it for my own self-respect and conscience. My stance is not a personal attack on Vietnam veterans or any war veterans. I know the flag represents people who have died for this country, and I support them. But the flag means different things to everyone." As the spotlight has grown, Smith's college community has reacted as you would hope. Teammates who don't support her position have supported her right to make it. Students have backed her stand, if not her cause. The school's president, Richard Berman, released a statement that ended, "It is irrelevant whether I, or anyone else, agree or disagree with Ms. Smith's position. Her right of expression is fundamental and we support her." Amazing, what they're teaching in school these days. So is anyone else learning anything? Dave Hyde can be reached at dhyde@sun-sentinel.com.