The Ongoing NFL Kneeling-at-the-National Anthem Controversy

I wrote early on in the 2016 National Football League season that I strongly disagreed with the tactics taken by then-San Francisco 49er quarterback Colin Kaepernick as he remained seated during the pregame playing of the National Anthem as a protest against how he perceived blacks and other minorities were being treated in this country.  Several players on his team and others joined him in this silent but ostentatious action, and at the time I stated that since the league was not going to take any disciplinary action against them then I would boycott the season.  And I did, until I noticed that that same league was making sure that the police and our brave soldiers were being honored during different halftime shows and decided that in an imperfect world, they were probably doing the best they thought they could.  Still, I objected to the protests...and multimillionaire Kaepernick, a sympathizer of brutal communist totalitarian dictator Fidel Castro, should have been the last person to emulate or be called "courageous" for taking his stand...or should I say "seat".   But it seemed that the furor over all this had finally died down until it looked as if all of the teams were blacklisting Kaepernick, a capable pro quarterback who was an available free agent but not being considered...and believe me, some teams desperately need a quarterback who doesn't totally suck.  As this 2017 season has begun and progressed, more and more players were seen kneeling during the anthem, and the league offices once again averted their eyes.  Then President Trump went off on one of his spontaneous rants the other day at a rally aimed at his whopping 35% base of supporters and angrily urged fans to walk out of stadiums and for the teams to fire players who refuse to honor our national symbols.  I thought it was interesting that during the Charlottesville incident when white supremacist racists demonstrated against the removal of a Confederate statue, his off-the-cuff reaction was that they had a legal permit to do so and then equated their actions with the counter-demonstrators.  But with these NFL protestors Trump decided to make a "moral statement" instead and come down harshly against them.  So let me see...when it's white racists protesting, our prez says there are some very good people among them and takes great pains to emphasize that it's their legal right...when it's blacks protesting against white racism, he says "Fire them!"  H-m-m, I think I'm beginning to understand where Mr. Trump stands on race...

In spite of disliking the protests at the playing of the National Anthem, I do respect and agree to a great extent with the reasons for them...blacks and other minorities really don't get a fair shake in this society, especially with regard to their treatment by police and how the justice system more severely prosecutes them.  But I'm standing back and watching how it's all being spun on TV and I have to wonder whether I'm the only one who discerns that the issue is being twisted around a bit.  To disrupt an assembly through protest is in of itself a deliberate act of disunity...to stand together at the playing of the anthem would have been the act of unity.  Instead, different teams are all pretending to be "united" by holding arms and doing other sorts of symbolic acts...but the unity is among themselves only, not with the fans or the people at large.  And Trump is consequently being portrayed as a "divider"...which I agree he most assuredly is, but not for the reason they're all giving over the air...and it's a shame, because I find myself at times agreeing with the president's positions on different issues: if he only didn't act as a wrecking ball in promoting his viewpoint.  The protesters most certainly are ALSO dividers, not unifiers, and it might be argued that their divisiveness is for a good cause...you're not going to hear me disagree on that one.  But I think that all of this symbolic stuff going on isn't going to make anyone's life better...if anything it will just entrench those whose mindsets need the most change.  In any event, our bumbling, blustering president has turned the protests from a social statement into a political one: if you're against Trump, then kneel, if you support him, stand...never mind how you feel about the honor and privilege of being an American anymore...